Christ Church, Oxford

MUSIC: Fanfare (Walton) 

CHOIR/ORCHESTRA: Thy hand, O God, has guided (Thornbury) 

OFFICIANT: 

How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven. 

Welcome to Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, where we have brought together members of our choral foundation and extended cathedral family as part of our celebrations of the five hundredth anniversary of Cardinal College, the foundation which would later become Christ Church – a unique joint foundation of college and cathedral, informally known as ‘The House.’

In this service, we will enjoy music and texts by Christ Church composers and writers from throughout our history; and our Dean, the Very Revd Professor Sarah Foot, will reflect on what it is to be the ‘house of God’ with Christ as our cornerstone. 

We begin with prayer. 

Beloved in Christ, we have come together in the presence of God to mark the five hundredth year of this House of Christ. Here God’s faithful people have gathered in times of war and in times of peace; in times of joy and in times of sorrow; in times of sickness and in times of health; offering always praise to the God who is Maker, Redeemer and Sustainer of all things, and who has promised to be present wherever his people call upon his name. 

As we gather in the pattern of our forebears, we trust as they did in the God who is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. We entrust to God’s loving mercy all those in any kind of need, in this House, this city, this nation and this world. And we join our voices to the prayer of God’s people throughout the ages, saying together the prayer which Jesus taught his people to say: 

ALL:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. 

OFFICIANT: 

The choir sings Nisi dominus, composed in 2023 for the installation of Sarah Foot as Dean. Cheryl Frances-Hoad, a contemporary English composer with long-standing links with Christ Church, set the Latin text of the first 3 verses of Psalm 127. ‘Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it.’ 

CHOIR: Nisi Dominus (Cheryl Frances-Hoad) 

OFFICIANT: 

The first reading links the ‘house’ (family) of King David, the ancient Israelite royal line, with the ‘house’ (temple) that David’s son Solomon would build 

in Jerusalem as a place for the God of Israel to be worshipped. It is read by Monty Powell, a graduate student at Christ Church. 

READER: 2 Samuel 7: 4–13 

A reading from the second book of Samuel, the seventh chapter and the fourth verse. 

The word of the LORD came to Nathan: Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’ Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the LORD of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD declares to you, David, that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 

This is the word of the Lord. 

ALL: Thanks be to God. 

OFFICIANT: 

The next hymn is by Charles Wesley, who before he joined his brother John in the revival that became the Methodist Church, was an undergraduate here at Christ Church and was ordained

CHOIR/ORCHESTRA: Christ, whose glory fills the skies 

OFFICIANT: 

The second reading is from the book of Acts. The disciple and deacon Stephen explains that, although God’s people have always dedicated special buildings as places of prayer, God cannot be contained by human structures. God is the creator of all. It is read by Professor Mishtooni Bose, a professor of English at Christ Church. 

READER: Acts 7: 44–50 

Reader A reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the seventh chapter and the forty-fourth verse. 

Stephen spoke to the Council, saying: ‘Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David, who found favour with God and asked that he might find a dwelling-place for the house of Jacob. 

But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?” 

This is the word of the Lord. 

ALL: Thanks be to God. 

DEAN:

What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?’

500 years ago, in 1525, Cardinal Wolsey founded a college of the University of Oxford on the site of what is now Christ Church. Re-established in 1546 by King Henry VIII as both a university College and a Cathedral for Oxford diocese, Christ Church is colloquially known as ‘the House’. This reflects the Latin name that King Henry gave to this unique foundation: aedes Christi, the House of Christ. 

‘Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it’, the choir sang. These words remind us that, without God’s aid, the labour of building a house – a family or a building, for us a college and a church in the sense of both built fabric and a community of people – would be futile. The psalmist urges all who live and work in this place not to rely on our own strength, but to turn to the Lord to help us to build and to uphold this house. 

‘What kind of a house will you build for me, says the Lord’? The house of which the psalmist sang was, of course, the Temple in Jerusalem, the permanent home for God that replaced the tent and tabernacle in which the Lord had wandered with the people of Israel in the wilderness. 

Our first reading played with different meanings of the word house. It used the same noun to refer to the cedar dwelling where David was living, to David’s own family (his offspring, whom God would raise up), and to that future house built for God himself to dwell in.

In the gospels, Jesus spoke of the Temple as his father’s house, chastising those who turned that house of prayer into a market-place. In St John’s version of the cleansing of the temple Jesus went on to say, ‘Destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it up.’ Although they did not understand at the time, John explained, that after his resurrection, the disciples realised that he had been speaking of the temple (that is the sanctuary, the house) of his body. Yet Jesus spoke elsewhere in John’s gospel of his Father’s house as having many dwelling places, or mansions, to which he would go to prepare a place for his disciples.

We have now encountered the word house to refer literally to the building built by Solomon and also to this conjoined college and cathedral. Allegorically house can mean the body of Christ, and mystically it relates to the heavenly mansions. But there is a fourth, moral meaning to house, one that ties our readings together and speaks directly to our celebration of Christ Church’s anniversary. 

Remember the psalmist’s words: ‘Except the Lord build the house their labour is but lost that built it’. What is that house? Preaching on this psalm Augustine wrote, ‘The house of God – the house of Christ – is the temple of God’. Quoting St Paul when he wrote, ‘God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple’, Augustine continued: ‘This house of Christ comprises all the faithful, not only those alive today, but also our predecessors in the faith who have fallen asleep, and those who will come after us, those to be born into this human life, even to the end of the world.’

As the house, the body of Christ, all Christians are bound together into a church that extends far beyond the walls of any building in which we gather to worship. We belong as much to the earlier generations of the faithful who have gathered in these places as to the larger universal house of the Lord, which cannot be contained within any physical building that we might imagine. Augustine reminds us, ‘these believers gathered together are beyond counting, but their number is known to the Lord.’ 

Our collective identity as the house of Christ provides us with both comfort and security. Here in Christ Church, we may find a place to belong, to be ourselves, to seek wisdom and spiritual succour through word and sacrament. But with all believers, we share the obligation to live out our witness to the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection in our daily interactions with those around us, not just those inside the protective walls of our churches, but outside in our own wider communities.

‘Did not my hand make all these things?’ Stephen quoted in his sermon before the Council in Jerusalem. Scripture reminds us of our dependence on God in all that we seek to do, and above all to build. As we celebrate five hundred years of learning and worship in this place, we acknowledge our responsibilities to those who will come after us, to cherish and maintain our buildings and promote the college’s academic ambitions while remaining faithful to our founders’ intentions and striving to find favour with God. For we know that ultimately our Lord places little value on dressed stone or ornate woodwork. He rather desires the splendour of minds and souls yearning for his heavenly mansions. 

OFFICIANT: 

The choir sings Psalm 100, ‘Jubilate deo’ ‘O be joyful in the Lord’. This is a psalm prescribed for the service of Matins (Morning Prayer according to the Book of Common Prayer), and the setting is by Sir William Walton, a significant twentieth-century composer whose musical life began as a chorister here at Christ Church, and who returned later as an undergraduate. 

CHOIR/ORCHESTRA: Jubilate (Walton) 

SUB DEAN: 

Let us pray. 

As we give thanks for this House of Christ, we pray for all God’s people and for all places of prayer.

God our Father, who calls us all by name, bless and guide all your people into your ways of justice and peace. Give us the will to follow you in holiness and to serve you in joy. 

Lord, hear us. 

ALL: Lord, graciously hear us. 

As we give thanks for this House of Christ, we pray for all those who are homeless and vulnerably housed, and all who seek to aid them.

God our Comforter, whose will is that all people may flourish, bring help to all in need. Be with those who have nowhere safe to sleep; give wisdom to all who support them; give safety to all those on the streets and security to all those afraid of losing their homes. 

Lord, hear us. 

ALL: Lord, graciously hear us. 

As we give thanks for this joint foundation of College and Cathedral, we pray for all those who teach and learn in this and every place. 

God our Teacher, whose wisdom guides us, be with schoolchildren, students, and adult learners; bless teachers, lecturers, teaching assistants, and support staff in schools, colleges and universities; and give strength to children who struggle at school and those returning to education. 

Lord, hear us. 

ALL: Lord, graciously hear us. 

Almighty and everliving God, who, though the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, much less a house made with hands, yet promise to be present where two or three gather in your name: sanctify with your gracious presence this House. Let your eyes be open towards it night and day, let your ears be inclined to the prayers of your children, and let your heart delight to dwell herein for ever; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

OFFICIANT: 

Our final hymn, also by Charles Wesley, is among the best known of the six thousand hymns that Wesley wrote throughout his life. It includes the prayer that Jesus would make us – as individuals and as a community – the ‘house’ in which he dwells, in which his glory is made known. As this service draws to a close, we give thanks for every house of prayer, great and small – chapels and cathedrals, parish churches and our own homes – and we pray that God would make a home in each of our hearts, so that we may become beacons of his love and light in the world. 

CHOIR/ORCHESTRA: Love divine, all loves excelling (Blaenwern) 

DEAN: 

May Christ our Lord, eternal Love, pour out upon you his glorious light and bring you rejoicing to his heavenly courts; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 

be among you and remain with you always. Amen. 

ORCHESTRAL VOLUNTARY: Crown Imperial (Walton)