Moments of commemoration and celebration at Mansfield

During every term, our community marks events both solemn and light-hearted, both secular and from the wealth of the world’s religious traditions. We observe the occasions with food, music, contemplation and with joyous conviviality.

Revd Nathan Mulcock College Chaplain

In a world that often seems increasingly polarised, it is a great comfort that here in Mansfield there’s a delightfully warm embrace of each other’s religious and cultural traditions. Through the year, the variegated festivals and events are celebrated with great enthusiasm in College. Rather than share these occasions in some dreary chronological order, I thought instead to order them in a moving scale from solemnity to sanguinity: from occasions of sorrow and remembrance all the way to the most jolly, even silly offerings.

At the most solemn end are the acts of remembrance. This year we marked the Transgender Day of Remembrance, protesting against the death of those who suffered because of transphobia, incorporating music and poetry, word and silence. We also marked Holocaust Memorial Day with the inimitable Joan Salter MBE sharing her family’s stories of escaping to safety from the Nazi regime. Around the feast of All Souls, we held a service in the Chapel to remember departed loved ones; and the choir, along with a lone trumpeter, gamely helped mark Armistice Day at 11am, where we remembered all those suffering from the consequences of war today.

It has been a year of building wider partnerships and collaborating with others. We were pleased to host the European members of the Lutheran World Federation pre-conference as they worshipped, dined, prayed and deliberated together to formulate their statements to take to the World Conference. We’ve also been happy to welcome back a termly Catholic Mass and Christian Union Bible Study.

Compline, mindfulness, and discussion groups have been offered to students this year, aiming to give respite from hectic lives and provide a reflective space for considering life’s broader questions (often with free food and drink!). It has been a delight to join forces with Corpus Christi Choir singing joint services together through the year, and sharing in a service of evensong at New College Chapel in place of the usual choir. The regular Wednesday service continues to be animated by an abundance of students keen to sing, with themes for this year being ‘Lessons in nonconformity’, and ‘The Gospel according to Disney’ where guest preachers were compelled to sing part of their sermon!

Opportunities to join with the joyful celebrations of other religious traditions have abounded. We welcomed visitors to celebrate Nowruz, with music, storytelling and poetry; and we sat down with the Dialogue Society during Ramadan for an Iftar where Jewish, Muslim and Christian voices offered art, music, and reflection with local dignitaries of the city. Hanukkah was marked with latke and games and decorations down in the Crypt, and we held our candlelit nine lessons and carols service to celebrate Oxmas. The Choir also pulled out all the stops in the very local feast of Mansfieldmas, alongside many other acts. Another highlight was Diwali where, at dinner, the Chapel was filled with lanterns, lights and rangoli; the candle budget has been extraordinary this year!

The summer high point for both Chaplain and Choir was our tour to Florence, singing in Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, performing at their high Sunday services and enjoying the seemingly endless art museums and ice cream. Closer to home we celebrated the return of a full Mansfield Easter egg hunt, with 200 chocolate eggs hidden around College at 4am by a bleary-eyed Chaplain. The eggs didn’t last long.

Such is the round-up of 2022/23. Alongside welcoming new students we also bade farewell to our Music Director, Tom Hammond-Davies, as he accepted a new post in Wadham. We are already working to foster a relationship with the Wadham Choir alongside Corpus. Taking up the reins at Mansfield is James Brown; we wish him a successful and happy time with us.

Much of our success this year could not have been achieved so smoothly without the tireless work of Hasnain Sumar (Theology & Religion, 2021), the JCR Faiths Rep, who has done so much to encourage engagement and new ventures.

Chaplaincy at Mansfield is extraordinarily varied. It is glorious to be part of this diverse, joyful, and inclusive community. More than any celebration, it’s a pleasure to work among such people; they are the true jewels of this College. The variety and richness of the work this year points to the enthusiasm of our students and staff. It’s wonderful to feel the spirit of nonconformity, with all its possibilities for life together, still breezing through this place as we work to create one harmonious community that celebrates each other in our differences. That there are so many luminary examples at Mansfield is a great testament to the spirit of this College.