The Chapel
Profile: The Chapel Society of Manchester College Oxford
(An article commissioned by the editor of The Unitarian, and reprinted here with his kind permission.)
MCO Chapel Society in 700 words? Where to begin? In 1786, when Manchester Academy was founded to provide a liberal education for Unitarians and other dissenters debarred from obtaining Oxbridge degrees? … In 1889, when the college moved to Oxford, announcing its arrival by building a chapel of self-confident grandeur in the late-Victorian Gothic style? … In 1956, when ‘The Society of Worshippers’ (later to become ‘The Chapel Society’) was formally established ‘to encourage the corporate religious life of those attending the Sunday Services’? … In 1996, when a Royal Charter guaranteed the congregation’s right to hold a service in the chapel every Sunday morning?
The college archives record that for at least 115 years free thinkers have met for worship on Sundays in Oxford, at first in hired rooms in the High Street and then, from 1893, in the new chapel, where sunlight filtering through the stained-glass windows (designed by Burne-Jones, made by the firm of William Morris) splashes rich colours – vermilion, veridian, cerulean blue – over the carved oak panelling, and the finest nineteenth-century organ in Oxford fills the lofty spaces with preludes and fugues. In the south windows: personifications of virtues – Justice, Courage, Humility, Generosity etc., all in the guise of Pre-Raphaelite maidens and knights. In the north windows: a visionary depiction of the six days of creation, emblazoned with a quotation from Diderot: Elargissez Dieu ("Make God bigger!", or "Open your mind to enlarge your concept of God!") – a very Unitarian sentiment.
Not that the college is officially Unitarian. It was built with Unitarian money, and has been formally affiliated to the General Assembly since 1968, but from the beginning it was deliberately non-denominational in ethos. The Chapel Society, however, is avowedly Unitarian under the terms of its constitution. The relationship between the college and the Chapel Society is not easy to define. The appointment of ministers to the congregation is subject to the approval of the governing body of the college, in consultation with the GA, and in practice all our ministers have been on the academic staff of the college. The current Principal, Revd Dr Ralph Waller, is a Methodist minister who – while shrewdly steering the college into full membership of the University – has been a true and valued friend of the Chapel Society since his appointment in 1988.
Visiting preachers sometimes make the mistake of assuming that our close relationship with the college means that the congregation is composed entirely of intellectuals and academics. It’s true that the Chapel Society has included among its members some very notable University figures – to name but two, the late Professor Sir Alister Hardy and Lord Bullock, a former Vice-Chancellor who died earlier this year. But most of us are ordinary (I nearly said ‘real’) people who live and work in Oxford and surrounding towns and villages. There are about 100 people on our books, of whom about half take an active part in the life of the congregation. Because many live up to 30 miles away, we don’t organise regular mid-week activities. Everything is centred on the Sunday services, which have to be made relevant to people with a wide range of theological perspectives – Humanist, Universalist, and Unitarian Christian. Once a month we have a sandwich lunch together after the service, with a discussion introduced by an invited speaker. In recent months we have learned about the problems of refugees and asylum seekers; discussed Unitarian attitudes to war; debated the issue of same-sex blessings; engaged in dialogue about Islam with a young Muslim man; and visited a Hindu temple.
For me, a church consists of its people. The stained-glass windows and the music are what first impress visitors, but they are not what constitute the church. MCO Chapel Society is the most caring and supportive religious community that I have ever belonged to (and I have belonged to quite a few in my time). As it says on the leaflet that we give to visitors: "We find a basis for unity in our shared search for truth, our reverence for life, and a mutual respect for sincerely held beliefs".
(That’s just under 700 words – and I’ve barely scratched the surface. For further information, readers are referred to a booklet by Jo Parker, entitled ‘Manchester College: A Short History, 1786-1990’, available from the college bursary; and to Alan Middleton’s excellent unpublished history of the Society. – Catherine Robinson, July 2004)