70. On Trinity Sunday.

Dearly Beloved.

Trinity Sunday celebrates endings and renewal as the Church moves from celebrating Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and finally Pentecost, and moves into “ordinary time”. This year Trinity Sunday was especially rich in such endings and beginnings.

In the mass at St Clement's, Charles Cowper marked the end of his training at Ridley Hall and the start of his teaching career by giving the sermon, which is regarded as the most difficult of the year because of the complications of the theology of the Holy Spirit. Charles led a wonderfully psychedelic exploration of the Revelation of St John the Divine, surely one of the most striking but most difficult texts in the Bible, “...I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven...”

In the afternoon St Clement's was full with standing room only for the service to bless the six sparkling new bells installed in the tower. That ceremony marked the end of a period of hard fund-raising and hard work by many at St Clement's but especially the inspiration of Barry Johnson. The Bishop of Ely in full regalia blessed the new bells. The Church was full of bell ringers, who, like some secret society, had emerged from hiding specially to hear the first sixty peals of these newly hung bells. The bells were shown in action on a video link on a screen at the west end of the Church. We all sang the Old Hundredth inciting us to praise God.

And so, after that, a short walk to St Giles Church revealed another packed congregation which had come to hear the Choir of Magdalene College sing Bach's Passion according to St John. They were accompanied by The Cambridge Baroque Camerata with soloists from the Magdalene Choir and some professionals. The lute struggled to be heard amongst this robust choir and orchestra. The part of Christus was sung by Rt. Rev. Rowan Williams, who made such a powerful contribution to these Dearly Beloved letters in his last days as master of Magdalene. The St John Passion is a short but much more tense, even grim work, compared with the better known St Matthew passion. Its tension is expressed well by George Herbert:

“...His life may make thee gold, and much more, just.

Awake my lute and struggle for thy part with all they art.

The Crosse taught all woode to resound his name who bore the same.

His stretched sinews taught all strings what key is best to celebrate this most high day.”

Rev. Sarah Atkins; the Chaplin of Magdalene, introduced the work and she expounded a robust defence of the faith, which took into account the reality that a significant number of those present would have had little or no knowledge of the Christian faith. She set out the power of this work to present Christ's passion. “It is finished” – that phrase sets out why The St John's Passion was appropriate for Trinity Sunday -- because this was true not only on the spiritual level, and in the context of the calendar of the Church, but for all students in her flock who had just finished their exams and were leaving Cambridge for new lives.

Despite George Herbert's terse poem, this years Trinity Sunday was above all a day of celebration of new beginnings. That was beautifully expressed by St Clement's Choir when they sang the anthem by Thomas Tallis “Rejoice in the Lord Alway”. The accompaniment to the choir mimics the joyous peeling of those unique English bells.

Peace and Joy to You All,

Paul.

Completed: 16 June 2022.

Photo: Paul Munton.

A Pollen Covered Beetle Cav0rts Amongst Flowers of Apple Mint.





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