PART THREE
The Lent Term, as the Director of Music has described in her report, was somewhat different, with a tiny, loyal resident choir working very hard to ensure that services could be enjoyed by what was by then a truly dispersed community. Once again the ordinands joined the Chaplain in preaching (this time from their various homes) and I am most grateful to Pete Leith, Christie Broom and Lizzie Campbell for all their support, and to Dr Alison Gray (Bye-Fellow) and the Reverend Professor John Morrill (Emeritus Fellow), who also provided sermons to help us through the strictest phase of the lockdown. The opportunity to enjoy a weekly live-streamed choral compline through the term was much appreciated as well. The opportunity for those still in College to gather in person on Easter Day was, not inappropriately, a first sign that change was coming and hope was on the horizon, and whilst we were not able to participate in the usual scrum of the student Easter egg hunt, we made sure people were able to take away an egg with them as they left the Chapel. The subsequent return of most students for the Easter Term enabled us to resume choral services in our regular pattern of three evensongs per week, and we were able to begin to welcome visitors to preach again, including Dr Jane McLarty, tutor at Westcott House, and Dr Marcus Tomalin, Fellow of Trinity Hall. Eucharists resumed, on Mondays to allow those who wish to continue to worship in churches in town to do so on Sunday mornings, and we broadcast choral evensong from the Chapel on BBC Radio 3 (twice). Despite all, we still managed to hold our traditional Chapel garden party in what would have been May Week (albeit socially distanced, in the marquee) and happily YouTube tells me that in the past month hundreds of people were able to join us for the service, even if they could not be there for the strawberries and Pimms. Our grateful thanks are due to Lizzie Campbell as she is ordained; to Francesca Firth, our Chapel clerk, for leading our wonderful team of wardens and skilfully sorting many rotas to ensure that everything has happened as it should; and to those in the team who are moving on, as well as choir leavers and our senior organ scholar Michael StephensJones. We wish them all well. Special thanks go to Emily Williams, who has been positively heroic in learning how to use our cameras to great effect, and has begun to train others to assist her. The business of building a new team after so much disruption will be one of the challenges for the future, but I have no doubt that the Chapel will thrive as people pull together, and I am very proud to be in a college which has been so determined to ensure that, despite all the challenges, we have been able to do as much as we have been safely able to do, whilst at the same time ensuring as far as possible that people have been cared for along the way. As Lucy Winkett remarked at the beginning of the year, this has been a time where we have had to learn so much. I have no doubt that much of that learning will bear fruit in the time ahead. In particular, I have been struck (through the number of views on YouTube and the many messages we have received) by the level of engagement that so many members of our extended College family have with the Chapel. Our online presence is here to stay, and if you are reading this and have not subscribed to us at www.youtube.com/selwyncollegechapel, please consider doing so. Or even better, come back to see us whenever you can. Canon Hugh Shilson-Thomas, Dean of Chapel and Chaplain
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