Regent's Now 2020

REGENT’S NOW T H E M A G A Z I N E O F R E G E N T ’ S PA R K C O L L E G E | 2020

BLACK THEOLOGY AND BLACK LIVES MATTER REMEMBRANCE IN THE LAND OF THE PERPETRATORS

Paying Tribute to Dr Robert Ellis

Our College Principal retires after fourteen years

Contents

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Principal’s Foreword Message from Dr Robert Ellis

COLLEGE LIFE

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Highlights from 2020

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Making an impact on Regent’s Park College: Update from the Development and Alumni Relations Team

PROFILES

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Dr Kate Kirkpatrick The new Fellow and Director of Studies in Philosophy introduces herself and her work

FEATURES

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The Beauty of Living E.E. Cummings and artistic life in the Great War

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Black Theology and Black Lives Matter Two sides of the same coin

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Remembrance in the Land of the Perpetrators Historical monuments from a German perspective

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A Tribute to Dr Robert Ellis

STUDENTS AND RESEARCH

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A Year in the JCR

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A Year in the MCR

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A Year in the Ministerial Community

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Opening up the Angus The William H. and Kathryn E. Brackney Angus Travel Bursary

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A year in the life of the Centre for Baptist Studies

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Student Recognition 2019/20

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In Memoriam

Principal’s Foreword Dr Robert Ellis

W

hat a year we have lived through. It sometimes seems as if we have spent much of the last year responding to, or anticipating, the latest developments of the pandemic as they impinge upon College and University life. That impact on College, as on every other part of shared life, has been immense.

Education went online last Trinity Term, was a hybrid of the virtual and face-to-face in Michaelmas, and now is back online again for Hilary 2021. We still hope for better things for Trinity 2021, but we have all become used to constantly resetting our expectations.

The University and the College have each done a remarkable job in rising to the challenges of the pandemic and keeping educational standards at the very high level we expect here. Our students and our staff have shown amazing resilience and resourcefulness. We had an extremely strong set of examination results last summer as one sign of this (among undergraduates, more Firsts than ever before – fifteen - despite the peculiar stresses of re-arranged and online examinations) and our staff have continued to garner awards and honours. Students rated the learning experience at Regent’s top in the University in the 2020 ‘Student Barometer’ exercise (and a very creditable fifth for living experience). Among the casualties of the pandemic we must lament the 50th anniversary of the Boat Club’s first outing in Summer Eights back in 1970.

The last year or so is proving a time of transition in College, not least in the arrival of a number of new members of staff who have joined Regent’s, some in senior positions. In Dr Anthony Reddie and Dr Christine Joynes we welcomed new Directors for our refreshed research centres; Sarah Mann became College Librarian; and Jennie Taylor began as Academic Administrator in January 2020. Dr Kate Kirkpatrick began as Fellow in Philosophy & Christian Ethics on the cusp of lockeddown Trinity. Mike Freeman took over as Director of Operations in time to plan for the strange Michaelmas, and Esther Mason started as Chaplain and Head of Welfare on an interim appointment. In addition, we have welcomed new colleagues to the History tutorial team, the Reception team, the Development Office and Outreach & Access.

Settling in to a new job can be difficult at the best of times, but it has been particularly challenging in this period when normal contact and conversation has been constrained, and it would not be a surprise if it was more difficult to feel the sense of belonging which has always been important to us here. Our first-year students who arrived on site in Michaelmas 2020, living in ‘household bubbles’ and without many of the usual social and cultural opportunities that Oxford offers, nevertheless generally reported a very positive experience – and we hope that their course becomes more ‘normal’ as the next few terms unwind.

Of course, we have also said goodbye to some staff members during the past year. I am not going to list them all here for fear of missing someone out but I will briefly salute our retiring Chaplain and Head of Welfare, Dr Myra Blyth, whose work has done so much to nurture

community and well-being in College – and also Dr Matthew Mills, who wore several hats during his time in College and was very closely involved in the publication of this magazine.

Personally, this strangest of years has been made more bittersweet because it will be my final year in post as Principal: I told Governing Body last summer that I would stand down as Principal at the end of this current academic year in September. In a role like this finding a ‘good time’ to step aside is always very difficult and any moment of departure will inevitably leave some loose ends. For instance, it will be a disappointment not to see through the first part of our vision for enhancing the College’s buildings. However, while the current Covid situation has created uncertainty that continues to play out through 2020/21, it will also be appropriate that a new Principal should lead the College in the years beyond it.

The College has grown significantly during my tenure, most noticeably in the size and academic diversity of its graduate community. I am proud of many of the things we have achieved together in these fourteen years, and since 2007 we have also made positive changes so that the management and processes of the College fit better the kind of larger and more complex institution we have become. There are big questions ahead for Regent’s: our place in the University structure needs constant examination; the financial and other challenges which impact a small unit when infrastructure and compliance demands grow; the need for improved and increased accommodation for students and staff; a fuller integration of the larger postgraduate body; and our position as a provider of ministerial training in a changing world.

I think the College is well set to face whatever the future holds – not least because of the vital work that has been done in the last few years on improving our financial situation. We stand ready for opportunities as well as challenges, and I look forward to us all giving my successor our full-throated support.

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REGENT’S NOW COLLEGE LIFE

Highlights from 2020 2020 was a year unlike any in the history of the College. And yet, while much about 2020 will be memorable for the wrong reasons, the Regent’s Community has also had much to celebrate!

Principal Emeritus and Senior Research Fellow Professor Paul Fiddes was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Professor Fiddes was recognised for his work in the field of modern theology; doctrine in the context of ideas of wisdom and suffering; and the relation of theology to the philosophy and creative arts of late-modern culture, particularly in interface with literature.

In July 2020 the Oxford Prospects & Global Development Institute published Modernisation of Education and Social Governance, a collection of papers that address ageing population demography, alleviation of poverty and inequality, educational progress, revitalisation of rural localities, strengthening of industry, and human welfare.

In June 2020 the College said goodbye to Dr Myra Blyth as Fellow and Chaplain after sixteen years working at the College.

To mark the occasion, a book of essays exploring different aspects of liturgy, ecumenism and restorative justice, Reconciling Rites, was published in her honour.

Director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture, Dr Anthony Reddie, was honoured in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth Awards, which recognise outstanding contributions to the church and wider society. Dr Reddie received the Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship for his exceptional and sustained contribution to Black Theology and beyond.

Caitriona Dowden (Philosophy and Theology, 2017) was awarded the Gibbs prize for best performance in the Final Honour School in Philosophy and Theology for 2019-2020 by the Faculty of Theology and Religion.

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Our 2020 finalists achieved phenomenal results! Despite the immense challenges presented

by Trinity term, 15 students out of a cohort of 37 were awarded Firsts. Particular recognition goes to Charlotte Haley (Classics and English, 2016) who was awarded a Congratulatory First.

Dr Lorraine Wild, Director of Studies in Geography, received the 2020 Social Sciences Divisional Teaching Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievement in July.

May 2020 marked 50 years since Regent’s first boat club competed in the annual Summer Eights Bumps Races.

The results of the Annual Student Barometer Survey for 2019, released in June 2020, ranked Regent’s as the best college within the University for learning experience and fifth for living experience satisfaction.

The College contributed again this year to Oxford’s annual Meeting Minds Global event with Dr Alison Rosenblitt, Director of Studies in Classics, reading from her book The Beauty of Living: E.E. Cummings in the Great War (2020: W.W.Norton), named an Editor’s Choice in The New York Times (13 August 2020).

In Autumn 2020, College Research Fellow in Religion and Society and Associate Director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture, Dr Paul Weller, was appointed a Trustee of the Inter Faith Network for the United Kingdom (interfaith.org.uk). The Network is a key national body that seeks to facilitate and link national faith community representative bodies; national and regional inter faith organisations; local inter faith groups; and academic and educational bodies.

Emmanuelle's birthday in 2020 was a quieter affair than normal in accordance with social distancing rules. But the College still came together via Zoom to watch the grande dame enjoy her veggie birthday cake.

Making an impact on Regent’s Park College With every member of our community affected by the ongoing pandemic, our commitment to providing teaching and learning experiences that are attentive to each student’s needs has been especially important this year.

We are proud and grateful that it is friends and alumni of the College who make so much of what we can provide possible. You know what the College experience can be in better times, so to have your support means a lot for today’s students. Covid restrictions have resulted in keenly felt restraints on the College and its finances, and we need the support of alumni and friends more than ever.

Enabling in-depth study The ability to study at Oxford should not depend on a student’s personal financial means. With our diverse community of graduate students who enjoy being part of a small academic community within a large university, increasing the availability of financial support for postgraduates is a priority for us. Valquirya Borba, the current holder of the Pamela Sue Anderson Postgraduate Scholarship, and Afia Chaudry, who has joined Regent’s thanks to the Aziz Foundation Scholarship, speak of what this support has meant for them:

‘The financial support from the Pamela Sue Anderson Scholarship is what allowed me to take my place in the BPhil Philosophy course at Oxford, and I am hugely grateful to Professor Anderson’s family for this opportunity. In my studies, I was also inspired by Professor Anderson’s work on feminist criticism, and have been working on feminist history of philosophy, an area I might not have come across if it weren’t for my connection to her legacy’.

Valquirya Borba (BPhil Philosophy) Centre: Commemorative plaque showing the two shields of Greyfriars and Regent's linked with a cord

‘Receiving the institutional scholarship from Aziz Foundation and Regent’s Park College means a lot to me because of the aims of the granting body, and also my position as a British Muslim classroom teacher. Through this award I am able to actualise a research which reflects not only my own experiences of history education in Britain, but also that of my students. I am very fortunate to have been given this opportunity as it will allow me to carry out doctoral research without financial burden, so that I can exercise all my efforts into interrogating the experiences of British Muslims in history classrooms’.

Afia Chaudhry (DPhil Education)

The new Greyfriars Scholarship is launched Finances often form an insurmountable barrier to young people who wish to pursue further studies after their first degree; in fact, the most frequent reason given by graduate offer-holders who turn down their Oxford place is lack of funds. Scholarship schemes can be limited and highly competitive. We are therefore absolutely delighted that this year we have launched a new scholarship for the study of humanities at postgraduate level, The Greyfriars Postgraduate Scholarship.

This project to honour Greyfriars Hall came to fruition entirely through the vision and generous donations from members of the Greyfriars alumni community, who became part of the Regent’s alumni community when Greyfriars closed in 2008. In keeping with the ethos and historic commitment of the Greyfriars to the poorest in society, the Scholarship takes into account both academic merit and financial circumstances that would make undertaking postgraduate study difficult or impossible.

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REGENT’S NOW COLLEGE LIFE

How you can support your College in 2021

We are indebted to those Greyfriars alumni who have been involved in this project.

A significant portion of the funding for the Scholarship comes from the Jaspar Foundation, the charitable arm of the family-run property company Jaspar Group whose CEO is Greyfriars alumnus Anup Pankhania (Geography, 2002).

Set up by founder Raj Pankhania, the Foundation believes that the power of prosperity comes from harnessing the best from people of all walks of life. With a vision to reduce hardship, improve wellbeing and enhance life opportunities for all, locally and beyond, the Foundation aims to support programmes across education, healthcare, homelessness, elderly & disabled, water & sanitation and emergency relief.

‘As education is very close to our hearts, we have a vision to ensure children and adults are offered a chance to achieve their potential in schools and universities here and abroad. Having been an active charity for the past 12 years, Jaspar Foundation is passionate about commitment to further and higher education.

The Pankhania family are excited about this opportunity and have decided to pledge a long-term donation towards the Greyfriars Scholarship for the next 5 years. Jaspar Foundation are proud to help in this capacity, feel honoured to be affiliated to the University of Oxford and wish the worthy candidate all the best in their studies at Regent’s Park College, Oxford’.

Anup Pankhania, on behalf of Jaspar Foundation.

We have worked hard as a College to offer tailored assistance to each and every student through the continually changing circumstances they have faced this year. It is a privilege for us to have provided this kind of support, and feedback from students and staff gives us confidence that it has made a positive difference.

Whilst Regent's has been able to face this year’s challenges on a sure financial footing, the experience of 2020 has made clear our limitations in terms of meeting the needs exposed by the pandemic. To raise funds for our most fundamental needs, and allow as many people as possible to gather together behind their college, we are launching our first ever Giving Day. This will be an opportunity for the whole Regent’s community of staff, students, alumni and friends to join in online - on a single day - to support the College and its future. Mark 25-26 May 2021 in your diary and please update your email address with us to ensure you don’t miss out! If you can get involved through giving and volunteering on the Giving Day, you will be helping us reach our goals for three key College priorities:

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Both the Pamela Sue Anderson Studentship and the Greyfriars Postgraduate Scholarship funds remain open to donations. If you would like to donate, contact development@regents.ox.ac.uk.

‘I think of my time at Greyfriars fondly and with gratitude. Perhaps I did not know it then, but it guided me towards understanding the importance of change but also of supporting belief. It was thus a real honour to support the project’.

Mark Rachovides (Greyfriars, Modern History, 1981)

‘We are excited about the project to honour Greyfriars Hall, and hope that Regent’s will increasingly offer a place around which Greyfriars alumni will continue to gather. Regent’s provides a unique opportunity to keep the legacy of Greyfriars Hall alive for future generations’.

Nicholas Adams (Greyfriars, Jurisprudence, 2004) and Jo Jimenez (Greyfriars, History & English, 2005)

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Student Support We need to expand our ability to respond with flexibility to unexpected needs or hardship without constraints or restrictions, and give students additional opportunities for expanding their research and studies that will help them flourish.

Growing this fund will provide huge value to students, helping in more ways as more and more students find themselves having to ask for financial help or additional support from the College for real needs they could never have planned for.

Improving the living and learning environment We are striving to provide the best quality of accommodation and facilities for our students, and support towards the development and maintenance of the site and its facilities will let the College focus on the most pressing needs. This is particularly important given that financial restrictions this year forced us to pause planned renovations. For those who wish to leave a lasting legacy, in recognition of generosity there is considerable scope to remember your name or that of a loved one in rooms throughout the College.

Outreach and Access As a small college with a reputation for providing a strong sense of belonging within a diverse and inclusive community, Regent’s has an important role to play dispelling myths about Oxford for young people. This is of real value in the current climate where young people are faced with more uncertainty than previous generations. We believe strongly that Regent’s provides a superlative community for students for whom Oxford could be an alienating experience. With support we can increase our links to schools with historically low Oxbridge attendance and work with young people to inspire and instil confidence to apply, thereby opening up huge potential and opportunity.

As Covid Persists, So Does Regent’s Access and Outreach Work Maryanne Saunders, Access and Outreach Coordinator

Virtual open days and virtual Q&A events with participating schools have continued over lockdowns and staff ran very successful mock interviews with local state school students.

A big project in 2020 has been our new partnership with The Oxford Academy, a secondary school in Littlemore, Oxford.

The new ‘Regent’s Innovative Research Award’ was co-designed by undergraduate and postgraduate volunteers who work with year 10 students identified by their teachers as bright and/or at risk of not continuing to further education. Feedback from the school has been excellent. We have re-established our connection to Oxford Cymru, a group of colleges headed by Jesus College focused on access and outreach in Wales. Objectives in 2021 will be expanding student training and our connections with schools and working with RE PGCE students, Regent’s staff and local partners to promote the study of theology at university level in state schools.

Alumni Events We cannot wait to welcome our alumni and friends back to the College, or travel out to meet with you in person, when it becomes safe to gather together again. But in the meantime, our events offering for alumni has gone virtual!

In October 2020 the event Thinking Liberation presented a unique opportunity to hear Dr Kate Kirkpatrick and Dr Anthony Reddie in conversation about their formative influences and shared hopes for their respective work in liberation theology and feminist philosophy.

For our second Regent’s alumni and friends event, Research Fellow in Economics Pawel Adrjan drew on his experience as the UK Economist at Indeed, the world’s largest job site, to discuss the impact of the Covid pandemic on the world of work.

Are you not receiving your invitations to our exclusive alumni and friends’ events? Don’t miss out, email development@regents.ox.ac.uk to update the details we hold for you.

Legacies to Regent’s Legacies and bequests have been a foundation on which the College has developed since first matriculating students in the 1950s. Leaving a gift in your will is an opportunity to make a lasting impact on a cause that is personally important to you. If you would like to discuss any aspect of leaving a gift in your will to Regent’s, you are more than welcome to get in touch with Viola Kerr, Development Director on 01865 288141 or viola.kerr@regents.ox.ac.uk

We are here for you!

Meet your Development & Alumni Relations Team Viola Kerr has been Director of Development and Alumni Relations since July 2019.

She came to the College having worked in fundraising in the education and charitable sectors. Viola has responsibility for all aspects of development and alumni relations at Regent’s; contact her at viola.kerr@regents.ox.ac.uk if you are considering giving to the College or if you would like to discuss leaving a lasting gift through making provision for the College in your will.

Amanda Sharp joined the team as Development Officer in September 2020 after working in museums and heritage.

Amanda provides administrative support to the Development Office and manages Regent’s alumni communications programme, including the production of the College magazine; contact her at development@regents.ox.ac.uk to update your contact details, for information about our alumni events programme, or for help making a gift to the College.

We are a small team with ambitious plans for 2021, as we develop opportunities for the whole Regent’s network of alumni, friends, students and staff to engage with one another and to support the College, whether by donating time, expertise or funds. The involvement of each and every person who has been connected to Regent’s Park College is not only welcome and valued, it makes a huge and tangible difference. Please get in touch if you would like to explore ways you can help.

Our heartfelt thanks to all those who have given to the College this year whether financially or of your time and skills.

We depend on your support and are deeply grateful for it.

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REGENT’S NOW PROFILES

Dr Kate Kirkpatrick The new Fellow and Director of Studies in Philosophy introduces herself and her work

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ow should one introduce oneself to alumni when one is an alumna?

I suppose the best place to start is to say that I read Philosophy and Theology at Regent’s Park from 2002–2005. During that time, I don’t remember doing much to distinguish myself in extracurricular matters: once I was nominated for a JCR award—Most Elusive Person in College—but (paradoxically, it seemed to me) because I was not present at the awards event, I was disqualified.

A return to Philosophy My publishing years gave me time to reflect on the kind of research I valued: I was interested in methodology in philosophy and theology, the relation between philosophy and literature, and between philosophy and feminism. In all of these domains of ‘philosophy and’, questions of form and content fascinated me: what makes, for instance, something like Augustine’s Confessions a philosophical work? How does narrative context affect the meaning of what is said? Why are some philosophers so preoccupied by propositions or ideal theories? Do those preoccupations lead to the consequence that some people’s questions—or even entire social groups—are unjustly excluded from the field of ‘philosophy’?

I reached the conclusion that working in French phenomenology and existentialism would offer an opportunity to think through some of these questions in dialogue with views that continue to influence contemporary thinking about the world. I wrote my doctorate on the concept of nothingness Dr Kirkpatrick with Professor Pamela Sue Anderson, Oxford, 2016 I came to Regent’s Park from the United States, and during my undergraduate years my intellectual interests were nurtured with care under the direction of another American abroad, the feminist philosopher Dr Pamela Sue Anderson. After graduating I worked in publishing for five years, as an editorial assistant and then commissioning editor of non-fiction books. I liked working in the book trade but soon realised that I was in the wrong part of it: I enjoyed the creative conversations with authors about honing their projects, but I also wanted to research and write my own. So, I returned to do my MSt and DPhil at St Cross College, Oxford, from 2010–2015.

Jonathan Kirkpatrick

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Dr Kirkpatrick with Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, adopted daughter of Simone de Beauvoir, Paris, 2018

in Jean-Paul Sartre’s early phenomenological ontology under the supervision of George Pattison, then Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Christ Church, and Pamela Sue Anderson, then Professor of Modern European Philosophy of Religion. Now you might well wonder: What does phenomenological ontology have to do with contemporary ways of thinking about the world? I argued that Sartre’s ontology was indebted to the Christian doctrine of original sin, and to debates about the reception of Augustine in 17th-century French philosophy. According to Sartre, humans have a propensity to look at each other with a reductive gaze: a gaze that sees your surface or hears your voice and categorizes you according to class, race, sex (to give just three examples) without questioning these categories any more than a child who sorts her Lego by colour or shape. Lego do not suffer from this treatment, but for human beings the objectifying gazes of others often result in alienation and oppression – and perpetuate human suffering on a wide scale. Needless to say, these phenomena are not new. The question is: what can be done?

After completing my doctoral work, I was appointed to a Stipendiary Lectureship in Theology at St Peter’s College in 2015,

Deborah Casewell

and to a Lectureship in Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire in 2016. My first book Sartre on Sin: Between Being and Nothingness, was published in 2017, and my second book, Sartre and Theology the same year. The first was my doctoral project, and the latter explored the legacy of Sartrean existentialism in the works of significant twentieth-century Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and black liberation theologians. In 2018, I moved to King’s College London as Lecturer in Religion, Philosophy, and Culture.

From Sartre to Beauvoir In tandem with my work on Sartre I developed an interest in the reception of the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir.

Beauvoir was well known in the twentieth century as the feminist author of The Second Sex and for being in ‘some kind of relationship’ with Sartre. But she was a significant philosopher in her own right, and in my view her reception in the twentieth century was heavily distorted by both sexism and feminist politics. Rather than writing a monograph or journal articles to express my findings, I decided to experiment with form and write a biography, Becoming Beauvoir, which was published in 2019.

One of Beauvoir’s claims was that in the ‘feminine condition’ women were encouraged to see love as their supreme vocation. In capitalist societies, she thought, the market had to hide the relations of domination that exist between the dominant and the exploited by processes of mystification. In her view the home was too often a context of women’s exploitation, perpetuated by what she called an ‘idolatrous’ and mystifying conception of love. Writing in 1949, she claimed that women were raised from girlhood to think that to succeed at life was to succeed at self-sacrificial love—and that

if they did not love in conventional ways as wives, mothers, or lovers, they would be judged failures. Why was it, she asked, that only some members of humanity were taught that love was self-sacrifice, or that to succeed at their own projects in life would make them less lovable?

Why was it, I wanted to ask, that Beauvoir’s own life and work were so often reduced to mystifying tropes about love or feminism? Beauvoir is a divisive figure—much loved and much loathed— but I found it satisfying to work on her philosophy in part because she is a thinker whose provocations clearly continue to touch nerves and change lives. In that respect, she serves as a counterexample to Karl Marx’s famous but false claim that ‘Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.’

Well before Marx, philosophers’ interpretations of the world have effected change. Today philosophical questions— about identity, ethics, and justice—are fiercely debated in public and private life.

My hope for the generations of Regent’s philosophers who study during my tenure as Director of Studies is that they will learn to, as the college motto puts it, ‘test everything, keep what is good’.

Outside of research and teaching, I enjoy spending time with my family— some readers of Regent’s Now may remember my husband Matt Kirkpatrick (BA Theology, 2002; DPhil 2008), and together we are parents to two primaryschool aged children. In any spare moments I get I enjoy reading fiction, painting, playing the piano, and— during summer visits to my natal state, California—taking out the kayak.

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E.E. Cummings and artistic life in the Great War Dr J. Alison Rosenblitt

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he modernist American poet E.E. Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1894 and he came of age as part of a generation taught to romanticise war. In 1911, he began his undergraduate studies at Harvard, falling in with a group of friends who longed to become writers and poets. This burgeoning literary circle included men who were talented but green, and whose callow views on the subject of poetry and global affairs included a fear that world peace was detrimental to their own literary ambitions. One of that circle, S. Foster Damon, later confessed: ’We kept saying to each other that no more poetry could be written, that the best poems had already been written, and all the subjects were used up. There could be no more romantic poetry because there would be no more wars, the nations were so economically interdependent.’1 Above: Fig. 1, Marie Louise Lallemand in a pencil sketch from one of Cummings’ French notebooks.

Houghton Library (Harvard) MS Am 1823.7 (16)

War did come; and many of this circle of friends, including Cummings, ended up as volunteers driving ambulances or munition trucks in France and Italy. When Cummings volunteered, he found himself delayed for five weeks in Paris before deployment. There he met and fell in love with a young woman named Marie Louise Lallemand, who was working in Paris as a prostitute. Some of the romantic notions of war which Cummings had assimilated find their 1. S. Foster Damon quoted in Charles Norman, E.E. Cummings: The Magic-Maker (New York, 1972).

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Figs 1 and 2 copyright © by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust. All photographs taken by the author. Call numbers refer to the Houghton Library, Harvard, E.E. Cummings papers, 1870-1969 (MS Am 1823-1823.10).

The Beauty of Living

way into drafts of poems centred around her: she was his Cleopatra, poised at the moment of death with the snake at her breast.

But war was not a romance. It was distressing, disillusioning, muddy, and frequently boring, as Cummings and his best friend in the ambulance unit, William Slater Brown, spent days cleaning cars and waiting to feel useful. Brown coped by writing letters home – frank letters about the atrocities of war which attracted the attention of the French military censors. Both Brown and Cummings were arrested, questioned, deemed ‘undesirables in the war zone’, and incarcerated in a brutal detention centre in the town of La Ferté-Macé.

Suddenly in prison, Cummings continued to pursue his artistic life through all available means. He could not actually paint, but he still dreamed of painting. He created a colour palette in one of his notebooks, cutting slits in the page and tucking in bits of coloured paper, pasting down stamps, and tying in scraps of yarn. By numbering his squares of colour, he could preserve ideas for the future: paint a man with a pipe in colours ‘2 / 13’ and ‘13 / 30’.

Prison also changed his artistic life on a deeper level than colour palettes. Cummings was caught in an inner struggle between his desire for a life of artistic bohemianism on the one hand and, on the other hand, the pressures – internal and external – to conform to the expectations of society. In prison, he witnessed the misuse of institutional authority, the sadism of the guards, and their abuse especially of the women and children who were also incarcerated at La Ferté-Macé.

Cummings’s empathy for his fellow prisoners brought him to a deep psychological and emotional confrontation with the misuses of power. In his rejection of an authority so absurd, so brutal, and so arbitrary, he found the confidence and the courage to trust his own artistic voice.

The months at La Ferté-Macé never left him. He kept, until the end of his life, a small set of mementoes from his time there: the stub of a pencil advertising Chocolat Menier, three shards of ceramic pottery, and a shrivelled field daisy. His first work of prose, The Enormous Room (1922), is an account of his imprisonment; afterwards, he seldom spoke about it. But in 1927, he composed his thoughts on the Great War for an essay titled ‘Armistice’, the manuscript of which is now in the archives at the Houghton Library at Harvard. In this essay, he reflected on the glamorisation of war and the damage done by such romanticising attitudes. He wrote (typing with his typically idiosyncratic punctuation):

Actually,war is neither beautiful nor horrible. It is much less than beautiful and much more than horrible-it is a fake.

Actually,war is neither beautiful nor horrible.

It is much less than beautiful and much more than horrible--it is a fake. […] It is that colossal fake of fakes in which whole nations indulge,secretly hoping that it will give them a beauty or a courage which they inherently fail to possess.

Of course, Cummings did not mean that wars are ‘fake news’. He meant that the ideology of war is a fake perpetrated on and by society. He contrasted this fake of war with the deepness of art, citing specifically the ‘deepness’ of Michelangelo’s ceiling for the Sistine Chapel and the feelings of aliveness engendered by art which is both great and deep.

By “deep” we mean that it does not merely astonish or overwhelm or destroy the spectator. We mean that it leads the spectator into itself and escorts him through all its intricacies,in such a manner that when he finally emerges he is more alive than when he entered.

The “great” war did not make people more alive. It made them less alive or else it killed them.

Calling on his own and future generations to change the mis-education which inducts individuals into an ideology that romanticises war, Cummings suggested that in the end, there is ‘a deeper beauty even than the beauty of death--the beauty of living.’

Dr J. Alison Rosenblitt is Senior Lecturer and Director of Studies in Classics and Ancient History at Regent’s Park College.

Her most recent book, The Beauty of Living: E.E. Cummings in the Great War, was published in July 2020 by W.W. Norton. The Beauty of Living was named an Editor’s Choice in The New York Times (13 August 2020).

Above: Mementoes kept by Cummings from his time at La Ferté-Macé. MS Am 1823.8 (48).

Left: Fig. 2, Cummings’ colour palette from prison.

Houghton Library (Harvard) MS Am 1823.7 (19)

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Black Theology and Black Lives Matter Two sides of the same coin Dr Anthony G. Reddie

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became interested in Black theology during my late 20s when I was working as a community worker in north Birmingham amongst poor working-class African Caribbean communities. Working as a faith-based community activist, I discovered this form of liberation theology that asserts that the God revealed in Jesus Christ is in solidarity with poor Black peoples suffering from marginalisation and oppression in White majority, racist societies. ‘Black theology’ describes the radical rethinking of how we conceive of God and Jesus in light of the ongoing suffering and oppression of Black people in a world run and governed by White people. It identifies the God revealed in Jesus as committed to liberation and freeing Black people from racism and oppression.

The roots of Black theology emerge from the transatlantic slave trade in which enslaved Africans sought refuge in the God of liberation whom they believed would free them, just as this same God had freed the Israelites from their enslavement in Egypt.

Black theology captured my imagination and inspired me to want to become an academic. It gave me a sense of direction and a vocation. In many respects, Black theology was the precursor of Black Lives Matter long before this more contemporary social movement burst into life in 2013. When I commenced my role as the Director of the Centre of Religion and Culture in January of 2020, little did I know that the resurgence of Black Lives Matter would turn my fringe work into something that is now almost mainstream. I have been working as a Black liberation theologian for over twenty years now. The sudden upsurge in interest in Black theology arising from the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement has given my scholarship a sudden visibility it has not had in the years prior to the murder of George Floyd.

Slavery is long gone, but anti-Black racism has long outlived the institution that helped to breathe it into life.

In our contemporary era, the underlying depiction of Blackness, which is still symbolically seen as representing the problematic ‘other’, finds expression in a White police officer placing his knee on the neck of a Black man and, despite the plaintive pleas of ‘I can’t breathe’, remaining unmoved and maintaining his violent posture until this Black man dies.

One cannot understand the futility of this death unless you

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Black theology was the precursor of Black Lives Matter long before this more contemporary social movement burst into life in 2013.

understand that this is no new phenomenon. White power has viewed Black flesh as disposable for the past 500 years.

Perhaps the most arresting moment in the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK is the curious case of the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol as part of a Black Lives Matter protest on the 8th June 2020. It can be argued that the pulling down or removal of statues has become a distraction from the wider issues of systemic racism that need to be addressed more urgently than the removal of historic artefacts, often ignored by most people in their daily activities. And yes, that is correct, if the focus is solely on statues in and of themselves. But let us consider the point of the Black Lives Matter Movement in the first place.

The Black Lives Matter movement emerged in order to counter the patently obvious fact that Black lives do not matter. This is not just a question of economics or materiality, it is also about

© TerryAnn Gray on Unsplash

seemingly ‘ephemeral matters’ like the impact on our psyche and associated questions of representation and spirituality.

It has been interesting to observe the concern of ‘some’ White Christians for matters of law and order and governance and property in relation to the tearing down of the Colston statue in Bristol. Black people living in that city, many of whom are the descendants of enslaved peoples, have had to engage with the sight of a statue built in honour of a slave trader. Long before a so-called mob tore this one down, activists asked for it to be move to a museum where those who deliberately wanted to see it could, but saving those of us who didn’t the ignominy of having the lives of our oppressed ancestors constantly insulted. White authority ignored our claims, because Black lives and our resultant feelings do not matter.

In 2007 I campaigned, along with many others, for a national monument to mark the epoch of the slave trade and the countless millions who died under the yoke of British slavery. We were peaceful, respectful and went through the usual democratic and representative channels. But we were ignored because Black feelings don’t matter; because, ultimately, Black lives do not matter. We campaigned for an apology for Britain’s involvement in the Slave Trade, but none was issued because, we were told, the slave trade, sanctioned by greedy White mercantile interests, was legal at the time.

So, no apology and certainly no reparations. Once again, we were not hectoring or behaving like a mob.

Thus, we continue to live with the psychological and spiritual damage of witnessing monuments to the people who made billions from peddling the Black flesh of our ancestors. And this is to say nothing of the tangible manifestations of economic hardship and the social deprivation facing Black bodies in postcolonial Britain, as revealed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

I will leave the final word to one of the great thinkers on the challenges of converting White people to an ethic of anti-racism, namely, the great African American novelist and essayist, James Baldwin. Baldwin opines: ‘Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.’ 1 Are we willing to face the reality of racism in the body politic of this nation and indeed the world?

Dr Anthony Reddie is the Director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture at Regent’s Park College. He has authored several books, including Is God Colour Blind?

Insights from Black Theology for Christian Faith and Ministry (SPCK, 2009), re-released in 2020 as a revised and updated edition with a new afterword on why Black Lives Matter.

1. Kenan Randall, As Much Truth as One Can Bear. In The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings (New York, Vintage Books. First published in The New York Times Book Review 1962, 2011).

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REGENT’S NOW FEATURES

Sandra Franz

The Memorial to the 39th Fusilier Regiment at Reeser Platz in Düsseldorf, Germany, completed in 1939 in a typical Nazi architectural style.

Remembrance in the Land of the Perpetrators Historical monuments from a German perspective Sandra Franz

During the troubled years of 1933-1945 the former homeowner, Richard Merländer, was systematically deprived of his legal rights, his possessions, his dignity and, in the end, his life, by the local government, his peers and his neighbours.

However, this tragic story is juxtaposed with an earlier life

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of belonging, and the success of a young man who built a business and a home in a thriving German city. It is foremost the history of assimilated Jewry, a segment of the population which saw itself as primarily German – rightfully so. The narrative of the Holocaust in Germany is often told as starting almost ‘out of the blue’ in January 1933 and developing in a vacuum with no obvious prehistory or continuation after the complete capitulation of the Third Reich. Through the Villa Merländer, Sandra Franz we have the opportunity to illustrate the life of German Jewish history before the terror, which I feel is essential in painting a coherent and honest picture.

In an already eventful year, 2020 witnessed the beginnings of the Black Lives Matter movement, arguably the most profound global debate on race and racism since the 1960s, which has triggered renewed debate on the value of historical statues and the potential insult they

Simon Erath

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he Villa Merländer NS-Documentation Centre in Krefeld, western Germany, is a research facility located in the former home of a Jewish silk merchant. This is unusual as, more often than not, local memorial places (of which we have twenty-seven professional institutes in the state of North Rhine Westphalia alone) are housed in former places of persecution.

Villa Merländer therefore enables us to tell a broader, more complex story.

Sandra Franz

Sandra Franz is Director of the Villa Merländer NSDocumentation Centre in Krefeld, a position she has held since March 2018. An alumna of Regent’s Park College, she read for the MSt in Literature and Arts (2015).

Sandra Franz

embody. From the point of view of a German historian, this discussion is familiar territory. However, the European discourse manifested itself most prominently in the UK, where activism culminated in the downfall —both physically and figuratively— of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol. The pervasive topics of atrocities committed in the name of European colonialism and National Socialism facilitated a global discussion about remembrance culture where, curiously, Germany was frequently used as a positive example of how to deal with a nation’s troubling past.

Germany has the reputation of being a country which has come to terms with its recent past. This country, which has committed some of the worst crimes against humanity in modern history, is now leading in its efforts to commemorate victims of atrocity. How was this possible?

And is it truly accurate? The beginning lies less with German citizens and more with the Allies who defeated Germany in 1945. To say that the Allies approached the post-war world as one would be an understatement. On one point, however, there was full agreement: all depictions of the Third Reich, including statues of the Führer and the numerous swastikas crowning state buildings, were systematically removed.

It took Germany several decades to establish the memorial culture now taken for granted. It was not until the 1980s, for example, that numerous sites of memory were established and discussions about perpetration openly discussed. Today, the symbols and names have all but been completely wiped from German daily life; there are no streets named after Hitler or Goebbels and it is illegal to display swastikas. Instead one may ‘stumble’ over countless ‘Stolpersteine’, small brass stones embedded in the cobblestones of the street, each commemorating individual victims of Nazi persecution in front of their former homes.

Although such memorials help to integrate history with the everyday, there is still a lot of work to do.

The so-called ‘forgotten’ victim groups have yet to receive an equitable commemoration, including homosexuals, a group to which Richard Merländer belonged, among other less defined collective groups side-lined by society. Moreover, there are still streets and places named after politicians and industrialists who, despite clear connections to the Nazi regime, held less prominent positions until 1945 and were thus able to continue their career in the Federal Republic of Germany. Notably, streets received such names in the post-war era, predominantly before the 1980s but some later. Indeed, the Allies’ denazification process was far more permeable than 1950s Germany cared to admit. Only now in

2020 are communities having discussions about whether to re-name streets and places named after such historical figures, and the debates are long and intense.

A new generation It is not true that Germany does not in Germany has have statues commemorating WWII. There are a high number of local statues become involved in commemorating the fallen soldiers of memorial culture – both World Wars in their respective communities. The question is: given the a generation knowledge we have about the complicity arguably more of the Wehrmacht in genocide in Eastern Europe, are these still appropriate? sensitive to the Should we remove these statues? Some exclusion of victim communities have, while others have yet groups and post-war to engage in this debate. Perhaps a more open way of addressing commemoration continuities than was found in Hamburg, when, in the 1980s, their predecessors. public debates flared over a WWI memorial at Dammtordamm, built in 1936 during the And it seems the National Socialist era. Ultimately, rather same is happening in than remove the original monument, a counter-monument was erected beside it Britain: an emerging which contextualised the involvement of generation, more the German army in the WWII atrocities.

Germany provides an interesting aware and critical case study of an everchanging process. of British colonial Current debates about memorialisation, both in terms of colonialism and National violence, has begun Socialism, have reached a turning point. A to demand a more new generation in Germany has become profound historical involved in memorial culture – a generation arguably more sensitive to the exclusion of reappraisal. victim groups and post-war continuities than their predecessors. And it seems the same is happening in Britain: an emerging generation, more aware and critical of British colonial violence, has begun to demand a more profound historical reappraisal. With this in mind, I feel that we are on the cusp of a new era in thinking about commemoration and I am thankful for my role in that process.

Top left: The Villa Merländer NSDocumentation Centre, located in Krefeld in Western Germany.

Left: ‘Stolpersteine’ brass memorial plaques for the Mayers on Bruchstraße 31, Krefeld.

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A Tribute to Dr Robert Ellis

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t the end of the 2020/21 academic year Dr Robert Ellis will step down as Principal of Regent’s Park College after fourteen years in the role. Reflecting on the considerable legacy he leaves for the College and beyond, alumni pay tribute to a Principal whose wise and gracious leadership will be sorely missed by all.

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first met Rob Ellis at the beginning of Michaelmas Term 1974 when we were both freshers at Regent’s, Rob reading Theology while I was a lay student studying Geography.

Assisted no doubt by much late-night coffee drinking and his mother’s much-appreciated home-made Welsh Cakes, we quickly became good friends, developing a firm friendship that continued beyond our time together at Regent’s through to the present day.

As undergraduates enjoying the collegiate life of Oxford, we both somehow got elected to the Junior Common Room Committee, Rob as JCR Secretary and myself

as Treasurer, before we each held the role of JCR President, myself in 1976/77 and Rob as a postgraduate in 1980/81. But, despite both achieving these ‘lofty heights’ of college life, I can’t say it ever entered my mind, while studying at Oxford, that forty-three years later, I would be writing this tribute to mark the retirement of Dr Robert Ellis after serving fourteen illustrious years as the Principal of Regent’s Park College.

My visits to the Principal’s house to talk with Rob as a friend have proved much less daunting than the weekly discussions I attended there as JCR President over forty

years ago with the formidable Dr Barrie White, College Principal between 1972 and 1989. To describe those meetings (ostensibly about life within College but, more often it seemed to me, about the meaning of life) as challenging would be something of an understatement. But I remember them now with much fondness, often pondering about their possible influence on my eventual career choice as a psychotherapist.

But what of the possible influence of my friend, Dr Robert Ellis, on the countless number of students and lives that his lectures, tutorials, sermons and writings have touched over his years as the Principal? Certainly, I’ve never encountered another theologian who has inspired so much thinking about the ‘interface of belief and practice in theology, religion and sport’, nor one who has written and taught about the intersectionality of theology, cinema and film. Sport and cinema, in my humble opinion, are an important strand in the lifeblood of a very sizeable proportion of humanity. They provide not just accessible fora for experiencing hope, aspiration, success and failure, but also avenues for pondering the meaning and significance of themes such as loyalty, tradition, the breaking of records and new ground, and of our own understanding of our place in the world.

It seems abundantly clear to me that, in addition to encouraging both ministerial and lay students to reflect on the wider significance of their beliefs, Dr Ellis has also achieved considerable success, as a tutor and as College Principal, improving general access to and outreach from the College, both to college alumni and to university applicants. This has led to many lay students applying directly to Regent’s where, via a now much broader range of disciplines, they are challenged both to reflect on the potential of their own lives and to consider what they can each contribute to the world.

Those of you who have shared the privilege of knowing my friend Rob will also no doubt agree that, in addition to his undoubted intellectual acuity and creativity as the Principal of Regent’s Park College, he has also conducted his own life with kindness, warmth, humanity and an endearing sense of wit and good humour.

Enjoy your retirement, Rob... live long and healthily... you deserve no less.

Rod Thomas is an alumnus of the College (Geography, 1974), now a counsellor and psychotherapist.

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lthough myself a former student at Regent’s, I know Rob almost exclusively from our common work in the Faculty of Theology and Religion. The kind of acquaintance resulting from such collegiality is often not too exciting. Encounters occur in long meetings discussing seemingly identical problems in endless iterations. Everyone arrives at the last minute and hurries away with the final whistle if not before. This leaves little time for personal interaction, and when we do meet elsewhere, it is often easiest to continue a conversation from the latest meeting.

This is not to say, however, that there is nothing to learn about your colleagues from these meetings. There are those whose contributions are dreaded either for their abrasiveness or their opacity. Others never say a word. And then there are the few whose interventions everyone follows because their speeches are short and to the point, motivated not by a desire for selfpromotion but a genuine concern for the shared responsibility of organising a Faculty of Theology. Rob was one of this small group, equipped for this role by a unique combination of grace and wisdom. I cannot remember an occasion when his words were not met with many nods around the table and a generally shared sense that they really and truly moved our discussion forward.

This was my acquaintance with Rob until 2014, the year I became Chair of the Faculty Board. Over the next three years, our working relationship became much closer simply because Regent’s is such an important partner of the Faculty. Throughout this time, I encountered Rob as the Faculty’s loyal but critical friend, whose sharp discernment and conciliatory temper were invaluable at times of shared success but even more in moments of difficulty.

hen seasons change it is good to make the most of the opportunity to pause, reflect and give thanks. I am delighted to know that Rob’s upcoming retirement as Principal of Regent’s Park College will be no exception!

Whilst Rob has been Principal, he and I have worked together with others to offer leadership in the national life of Baptists Together. For some time, Rob represented the College Principals on what was the Baptist Steering Group; latterly Rob has become a member of the new Core Leadership Team. This also has meant that Rob has been part of our Council too. I suspect that Rob was selected to represent his College Principal peers by dint of the fact that he lived closest to the venue where we most frequently met! Physical proximity was, of course, by no means his sole qualification for the role! Rob has always brought a spirit of careful listening to our gatherings. He has not been a frequent contributor to discussions, but his timely, gracious, wide and perceptive interjections have often created very significant moments for us all. His ability to really hear what is being said and felt, to reflect theologically on the underlying issues at hand together with his pastoral sensitivity have all been such a blessing to me and our colleagues.

After years of discussion, the Faculty decided in 2014 on a radical reform of its undergraduate curriculum putting the study of theology on a part with religious studies for the first time. It fell to me to oversee its introduction. Although adopted with a large majority, the new syllabus met considerable opposition. Parts of the national media chose to paint the caricature of a Faculty falling prey to secularism. Closer to home, however, the challenges were real and nowhere more so than at Regent’s with its unique team of theology tutors. Unavoidably, the more diverse nature of the new curriculum would alter the way the College had successfully operated for decades; ensuing tensions were palpable in many meetings at the time.

In the situation, I could not have hoped for a better counterpart than Rob. He spoke clearly and articulately about areas of difference and even conflict but did so invariably with kindness and a level-headed

Rob has also made valuable contributions at key points in our journey in recent years. He wrote an important, accessible, theological piece about the nature of ministry to form the basis for the work of the Ignite review, a report which sought to capture our hopes, vision, energy, prayer, and practical experience to enable us to set our course ahead as Baptists Together.

He has also enabled and stretched our thinking with regard to young adults.

Added to this he has served the wider Baptist family through participating in numerous groups and working groups over the years, including many years serving on our national Ministerial Recognition Committee.

At a personal level, I have always appreciated Rob’s warm, relational approach and I have appreciated him so much as a colleague and a member of our national team. I shall certainly miss working with Rob in this way, but look forward to seeing what God has got in store for him and his family in this new season of opportunity.

The Revd Lynn Green is an alumna of the College (Theology, 1991), now the General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

pragmatism that seeks consensus, not confrontation. I doubt we solved all arising problems, but the solutions we did find owed much to Rob’s irenic yet principled stance.

From the Faculty’s perspective, Rob leaves great shoes to fill for his successor.

I wish him and his family well for the next phase of their life.

Johannes Zachhuber is an alumnus of the College (Theology, 1994), and now Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, and Fellow and Tutor in Theology at Trinity College, Oxford.

If you would like to share your own good wishes or words of congratulation with Dr Robert Ellis, please email these to development@regents.ox.ac.uk

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A Year in the JCR NICHOLAS CROMPTON

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espite the challenges presented over 2019/2020, the JCR has had another strong year: one which epitomised the College’s traditions of community, creativity and, despite its small size, making a real contribution in the wider University.

The academic year began with a superb Freshers’ Week programme, organised by Orlaith Fox and Matthew Jones, to welcome our first-year students and introduce them to life at Regent’s. This set the tone for a busy Michaelmas Term social calendar, arranged by Social Secretary, George Redford. We also saw the creation of joint football and mixed hockey teams with St Benet’s Hall – more to come on these later in the report. Other highlights of the term ranged from careers events including an information session from Teach First and a dinner hosted by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer organised by the JCR law society, Le Quesne, to the arts, with Skye Humbert directing this year’s annual Pantomime: the Regent’s take on A Christmas Carol. As we rapidly approached the end of term, Christmas festivities continued.

We enjoyed a typically popular JCR Secret Santa event followed by the annual carol service in Pusey House and Advent Formal Hall.

As ever, Hilary Term was busy in the JCR. There were a number of well attended social events, including a fundraiser for breast cancer focused charities to mark Pink Week. In sports, although time on the river

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was disrupted by the elements, there was strong uptake among our fresher rowers, while our joint rugby team with Merton and Mansfield continued to be well represented by Regent’s.

Moreover, JCR members filled the Oxford City ground in Marston to watch the Regent’s/Benet’s joint football team beat Jesus College in the final of the intercollegiate reserve Cuppers competition. Similar success was enjoyed on the Hockey pitches, as our joint team with Benet’s, led by David Crowther, won the University Third Division in the team’s first year of existence.

Nicholas Crompton was President of the Junior Common Room (20192020) and an undergraduate student reading for the BA in Geography (2018).

Owing to complications presented by the Covid pandemic, Trinity was very different to any term we had seen before, and the JCR had to adapt very quickly to changing circumstances. On the social front, there were regular online events such as Brews, quizzes and comedy nights. The JCR was in regular contact with College throughout the term, looking to support students’ welfare during these difficult times. Given the challenges students faced, the term exemplified how these situations can bring us together. We were delighted to celebrate Emmanuelle’s birthday with an online party organised by Marnie Ashbridge which raised over £500 for Meningitis Now in honour of Antonia Bruch, and to gather later on in term to recognise the outstanding extracurricular achievements of JCR members in the wider university. Impressive and eclectic, they spanned sports, music, drama, politics, journalism, comedy and entrepreneurship. During Trinity, the JCR also reflected on issues of systemic racism and will be working with College on a number of initiatives in response, one of which is a joint common rooms research project into the history of portraits around the College.

The 2019/2020 academic year was an historic year. I suspect it will be remembered by JCR members as one which brought students together to respond positively to its many challenges and epitomised the best of Regent’s spirit and endeavour.

A Year in the MCR CALEB BROWN

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ould you like to go on an Ambulatory Outing? Fancy a pub night on the MCR? How about a sausage roll? Have you ever toured Dubai?

This summer, I did tour Dubai. I also spent the whole summer in the US due to Covid. No, bilocation was not involved—Nicky Crompton (JCR President) seems to have mastered that skill, but he hasn’t filled me in on the secret. Rather, I toured Dubai precisely because I was stuck in the US. After all, other Regent’s MCR members also got sent home due to the pandemic and, for at least one of them, home means Dubai. So, during one of our weekly summer dinners on the MCR’s dandy Zoom account, we visited Google Maps and shared our screens. I gave a tour of Honolulu, she gave a tour of Dubai, and another student introduced us to Harrogate!

We continued to hold online events during Michaelmas Term 2020 so that MCR members who are unable to come to the UK or

are in quarantine can participate.

Until week four of Michaelmas, we also spent time together in person. Throughout Freshers’ week, we organised into ‘pods’ of six, exploring the Botanic Gardens, visiting the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (home of the largest Dodo specimen), romping through Port Meadow (look out for the UK’s deadliest animal, the cow!), and buying gowns (immediately before the romping— could have planned that one better).

At the end of first week, Regent’s hosted a beautiful, sociallydistanced matriculation ceremony to complement the digital event hosted by the University; this was a true pleasure, and one that many colleges did not offer their students.

To cap off Matriculation, we divided once again into pods for an MCR celebration, which is where I met my first sausage roll.

After elections in second week, our new Executive Committee developed a calendar of weekly MCR-sponsored pub nights, online hangouts and in-person activities.

No sooner had we got through our first week of this schedule, culminating in pumpkin carving on Halloween, when the Prime

Caleb Brown is President of the Middle Common Room (20202021) and a graduate student reading for the MPhil in Applied Theology (2019).

Minister announced a new national lockdown. For the rest of term, we held weekly online events and have implemented an ‘Ambulatory Outing’ scheme wherein each week MCR members can opt-in to be matched with a walking partner, and the MCR will provide each participant £10 per week to spend on food and drink.

So, that’s what we’ve been doing.

But who are we? This year featured both a higher number of returners than past years (around 20), as well as a bumper-crop of new graduate students. Altogether, we have about 100 regular MCR members, which I believe makes us the largest MCR in Regent’s Park history. We study subjects from economics and development to education and creative writing. When we leave the library, we compete in sports from underwater hockey to football, from rowing to powerlifting. Ministerial student Simon Lace is now tied for the best ‘strict curl’ in the Oxford Powerlifting Club!

When you receive this, we will be navigating a new term and a new phase of the ongoing pandemic. But the Regent’s MCR will continue to be a joyful place of academic enrichment, fun and community.

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A Year in the Ministerial Community ANDREA KING

Co-designed by several eminent Baptist and Church of England leaders, Creating Sanctuary (www. creatingsanctuary.org.uk) provides a six-part structured framework that seeks to understand the impact of exclusion on those experiencing the harm. It prioritises the voices of our LGBT+ siblings who, no matter how deep their faith or how extensive their sacrifice, often struggle to find Baptist churches where they might belong; might be welcome; and, sadly, might be safe. The last few years have been devastating. To our deep sorrow, we have lost a significant number of our community to suicide. This is not because there is anything that predisposes the LGBT+ community to suicide, but rather because our siblings have been relentlessly told by some that their faith and any sense of belonging in the church community (now and in the future) is simply not possible. Creating Sanctuary draws deep on the biblical principles of reconciliation and is underpinned by the Apostle Paul’s eloquent description of a body of people, the

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Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12), in which every part, hand, foot, eye, ear is valued, welcomed and honoured.

Creating Sanctuary focuses on pastoral care and safeguarding. It facilitates emotionally intelligent and reflective dialogues about how we might look and think again, and how we might recognise the devastating consequences of our collective impact, when we are not pastorally sensitive towards everyone, LGBT+ people included. It asks anew how we might treat each other with a love that mirrors the divine love so freely offered to us and how we might build safer churches together, building on the very best of what our Baptist community seeks to be and to offer.

This resource has been welcomed by interdenominational church leaders all over the world and promoted by national leaders and influencers in the areas of safeguarding and mental health.

Andrea King is the Ministerial Association Representative (2019-2020) and a mature student, reading for the BTh in Theology (2016) as an Independent Minister in Training; she is also a Coordinator and Chair of the Creating Sanctuary Core Team.

Within 24 hours of publication, Creating Sanctuary was viewed by 1000 leaders in the UK and, within 5 days, it was viewed by 5000 leaders worldwide. And the momentum has continued! In October 2020, over 700 participants joined a conference in London to discuss the imperative for change, and to help churches navigate what kind of community they wish to be and how to get here.

2020 has been a year of societal revelations around inequality and disparity, from the disproportionate impact observed in COVID-19’s wake to the righteous injustice of our siblings of colour in Black Lives Matter. The publication of Creating Sanctuary has thus been timely.

It is especially meaningful that Creating Sanctuary was supported

by Regent’s Park College, which has made space for me, a LGBT+ Minister in Training declared independent because of current inequalities surrounding ordination.

On behalf of the 2020 ministerial cohort, I have no words to adequately express my gratitude to the Regent’s leadership team for their integrity and their support of this ground-breaking work.

As a Baptist family we have been praying side-by side for many years over Isaiah 43:19: ‘see I am doing a new thing’. Our heartfelt prayer is that 2021 would be a year of reconciliation, where we manifest God’s love by building churches that provide a space of refuge, joy and compassion for all.

© Creating Sanctuary 2020

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hen asked what news the ministerial cohort would like to communicate in Regent’s Now, we felt a little stumped. 2020 has been a challenging year because of the multiple responsibilities everyone has been managing within College and within our communities. Together we decided this year’s highlight was the publication in February 2020 of Creating Sanctuary, a resource designed by members of the ministerial community at Regent’s and Baptist leaders across the country.

Opening up the Angus

The William H. and Kathryn E. Brackney Angus Travel Bursary

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he treasures to be found in the Angus Library and Archive are of huge benefit not only to scholars of Baptist and Nonconformist history but also to those pursuing diverse and wider academic interests. Our aim is to encourage greater scholarly engagement with the unique riches that are held in the Angus. However, the vast majority of items in the collection require scholars to visit in person to be able to access them. We are delighted, therefore, to have been able to establish The William H. and Kathryn E. Brackney Angus Travel Bursary thanks to the vision and generosity of long-time friends of the College, William and Kathryn (Kitty) Brackney.

William writes, ‘Our acquaintance with Regent’s Park College and the Angus Library goes back to 1982. Kitty and I visited Oxford for the first time,and we were welcomed warmly by Rex Mason at the Senior Tutor’s house on St. Giles Street. We were turned over to the care of the Rev Dr Paul Fiddes, who took us to a comfortable room and eventually ‘locked’ us into the treasures room of the Angus. We had limited time and worked most of the night comparing early Baptist texts for an upcoming publication. The thrill of being in the midst of Baptistiana, in the midst of Oxford, remains a wonderful memory.

On many other visits to the College, I participated in conferences, including the recognition of the festschrift for former Principal B.R. White (co-edited with Paul Fiddes), and delivered lectures.

During my sabbatical, Kitty and I lived for several weeks in College, where we were generously invited to High Table and the fellowship of the Senior Common Room. Later, I was delighted to be named to the Board of the Centre for Baptist History and Heritage (now the Centre for Baptist Studies), and to become a Fellow myself.

In the last decade, I have profited hugely from the research support and editorial labours of Dr Larry Kreitzer and Prof Paul Fiddes in my quest to understand better the General Baptist movement of the 17th century. In the Baptist World Alliance context, Paul and I have collaborated at many global venues,

and it was he who encouraged me to transform a paper on Baptists and the Spirit into a book.

My relationship with Regent’s and the Angus began when I was a young aspiring scholar. Our dream is to make possible a fund to support other young North American scholars and faculty to help cover the expenses of their travel and living in Oxford. It is our prayer that the fund will grow and assist many over the years to come, as researchers return again to the College. We are humbled and grateful for the support of Principal Robert Ellis and others for our dream.’

This positive new initiative will open up research potential to younger scholars, encourage further academic engagement with the Angus and lead to productive international collaboration. If you would like to know more about the Angus Library and Archives and the treasures it holds, please visit: theangus.rpc.ox.ac.uk

A year in the life of the Centre for Baptist Studies Dr Christine Joynes gives an update after her first year as Director

One of my first engagements after becoming Director of the Centre for Baptist Studies was to attend the 2019 Sam Sharpe Annual Lecture at Imperial College, London. The Centre is a partner in the Sam Sharpe project which campaigns for racial justice. The lecture,

by Professor Verene Shepherd, focused on the many Jamaican women who fought against the slave trade alongside Sam Sharpe; it often cost them their lives.

The second event was one I organised in Oxford, a day conference entitled ‘Baptist Women through the Centuries’ and marking the centenary of Violet Hedger’s admission to study at Regent’s - the first woman to do so. Alongside Hedger, papers explored the contributions of Barbara Lambe, Anne Dutton, and Barbara Stanford.

An innovation this year has been a new termly lunchtime lecture, addressing issues of relevance to the Church. We have welcomed Anthony Reddie to discuss his book Theologizing Brexit; Eleanor McLaughlin and Margaret Adams analysed The Ethical Challenges of Covid-19; and Dan Pratt led a panel discussion on Modern Slavery, highlighting the prevalence of this issue.

The Centre has continued to publish a variety of literature ranging from the 2020 Whitley Lecture (Finding a Friend: The Baptist Encounter with Judaism) to a Festschrift for Myra Blyth (Reconciling Rites) and a collection of conference papers exploring the importance of the Salters’ Hall debate for Baptist history (Trinity, Creed and Confusion: The Salters’ Hall Debate of 1719, ed. Stephen Copson) - all available to buy on Amazon.

We held our first online day conference in September 2020 ('Communion, Covenant and Creativity'), which attracted nearly 100 attendees from across the globe. If you missed it you can watch the sessions on our new YouTube Channel. Details of forthcoming activities can be found via the Centre link on the College website, or via our Twitter account (@CBSOxford). Many events will continue to be held online so we hope that this will enable many more of you to join us in the coming year!

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REGENT’S NOW STUDENTS AND RESEARCH

Student Recognition 2019/20 Each year, the College invites a member of the alumni community as its special guest – and afterdinner speaker – at the Recognition Dinner, when the community gathers to recognise the extracurricular achievements of its student members. In 2020, we held our annual Recognition with a difference – via Zoom rather than in the Helwys Hall and thus, alas, no dinner – but still an opportunity to raise a glass via our webcams! Greyfriars alumna Catherine Bray (English Language and Literature, 2001) spoke of the societies she was involved in at Oxford and how the unexpected twists and turns of her early experience of work led her to find satisfaction in writing, producing and directing – encouraging those contemplating the move from studying to career with her insights.

There will have been many other student achievements in the last year besides those listed here, not to mention superb academic accomplishments – it is often, and rightly, said that Regent’s ‘punches above its weight’ in all areas of Oxford life – but this selection was singled-out by the student community for special mention.

We are delighted to recognise the achievements of: Aubrey Black The Oxford Revue Caroline Brink Ice Hockey, Blue Benjamin Chuah President, Oxford University International Society; Co-Founder, OxQuarantine

Nicholas Crompton Director of Sponsorship, Oxford Union; Co-Director of Speakers, Oxford Forum for International Development

Edward Holmes-Milner Director, American Buffalo and The Entertainer

Charlotte Haley Events Officer, Society of Young Publishers (Oxford Branch); Fiction Editor, The Teeming Mass, Co-writer, BBC commissioned short film

Neil Kotre The Oxford Revue

Ellie Harrington Writer, Don’t Mind the Gap, shortlisted for Best New Play in OUDS Writing Festival; Director, Astroplode Reload, won Best New Play in OUDS Writing Festival

Adam Large Treasurer, Oxford University Jazz Orchestra

Tom Harrison Co-Director, The Entertainer

Milly Jonas Treasurer, Oxford Surf Club

Brigid Lahiff Captain, Women’s Blues Futsal

Laila Mafemba Co-Founder, Melanin.

Natasha Mallett Manager, Oxford University Sinfonietta Mackenzie Mully Director of Operations, Oxford Union Deia Russell-Smith Profile Editor, Cherwell Francesca Sisson Co-President, Oxford Belles

REGENT’S PARK COLLEGE COLLEGE | OXFORD

In Memoriam

Membership of any Oxford college or hall does not end with graduation. Friendships are often sustained throughout life and we are always interested to follow and celebrate the achievements of old members.

At Regent’s, we are grateful for the good links we manage to maintain with many alumni and friends, often over decades.

In this magazine, each year, we list the names of those members of the community whom we know to have died. In doing so, we give thanks for their contributions to College life and seek to have fellow alumni the opportunity to recognise their passing; relatives and friends are vital in ensuring that the College receives and is able to share this news.

In 2019/20, the College has lost: Kenneth J. Ovey (11 February 2019) Theology, 1950 Dr Eli Daniel Potts (6 August 2019) DPhil Modern History, 1961 Revd William A. Carter (9 February 2020) Theology, 1973 Revd Robert J. Paul (13 April 2020) Theology, 1963 Sir John Houghton (15 April 2020) Former Member of College Council

The Greyfriars alumni community responded with shock this August to the news of the sudden and untimely death of Seb Patrick, who read English at Greyfriars 2001-2004. A journalist and well-liked figure within the sci-fi community, Seb passed away suddenly due to a suspected heart attack at just 37, leaving behind his wife Jo and fiveyear-old daughter Lois.

Seb was always proud to be a member of Greyfriars and was delighted to DJ at the Hall’s infamous ‘Monastery of Sound’ night. But his enthusiasm for his activities often took him out into the university beyond the college, particularly in connection with his passion for music.

In his second year he shared a house with friends from the university’s Indie Music Society, of which he was treasurer. This led him to produce ‘Spiral Scratch’, a show on the student radio station, which allowed him to share his passion for 1970s punk music.

Seb was a popular and well-known figure at Greyfriars, a hall which, as with any small community, allowed people to make connections with people outside of their natural orbit. Former Warden of Greyfriars, Fr. Thomas Weinandy remembers Seb’s ‘creative and imaginative mind, one that was full of excitement’, while Greyfriars JCR President Rupert Abbott (2002-2003) recalls that ‘he was one of the great characters of my time at university’.

He will be missed.

Since his time at Greyfriars, Seb’s unashamed love and enthusiasm for comics, comic book movies and all things geek-culture

led him to produce many successful podcasts, articles, fansites, and also to a career which included editorship of the official Red Dwarf website, with TV channel Dave airing an in memoriam card in Seb’s name during the transmission of a recent documentary about Red Dwarf.

A fundraiser in loving memory of Seb has raised over £33,000 to date, with proceeds supporting his widow and young daughter. It is a testament to Seb’s own generosity and kindness that his tragic death at such a young age has inspired such tributes; he lives on in so many people’s fond memories, from his time at Greyfriars and life in the wider world.

This obituary was prepared by Seb Patrick’s friend and contemporary, Greyfriars alumna Catherine Bray (English Language and Literature, 2001).

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Join us!

This is a community celebration: give, share memories, spread the word with your contemporaries and take part in challenges on the day - however you choose to get involved, you will be welcome.

To hear about all the Regent’s Gives activities, and for invitations to exclusive Regent’s events throughout the year, please: • Update the email address we hold for you. You can either complete and send the enclosed update form or email development@regents.ox.ac.uk • Follow Regent's on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and make sure to tag #RegentsGives

Regent’s Park College, Pusey Street, Oxford OX1 2LB • www.rpc.ox.ac.uk • development@regents.ox.ac.uk A Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford Regent’s Park College is a registered charity (charity number 1181801). It is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (company number 11470540), whose registered office is at Regent’s Park College, Pusey Street, Oxford OX1 2LB.

Design by Chris York Design. www.chrisyorkdesign.co.uk

Regent’s Park College is holding its first ever Giving Day on 25-26 May 2021.

This is a chance to come together and celebrate everything the College means to you and all it stands for. By joining our Giving Day you can help the College gain in strength for the future and continue to play its unique role in the University of Oxford.