Map of Scholas

Establised by Musica Sacra of the USA. This isn't the first time I've tried to add our schola; let's hope it works this time!

Zoom in and out with your mouse wheel (or the little buttons bottom right); move the map by 'dragging'.

Final Mass of Michaelmas Term and termly dinner

Our final Mass of term took place in SS Gregory and Augustine, which is undergoing some very positive renovations. The regular traditional Mass on First Fridays fell, this December, on the Feast of St Birinus, a feast unique to the Archdiocese of Birmingham. St Birinus brought the faith to Oxfordshire, basing himself in Dorchester on Thames, which was accordingly the seat of his diocese. Below is a medieval stained glass window showing St Birinus receiving his commission from Pope Honorius I, in Dorchester Abbey, which once housed his shrine. (At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was an Abbey of canons regular, but it was saved by the residents of Dorchester to serve as a parish church.)

A ten-strong schola sang the Mass to a very pleasing standard and repaired afterwards, in company with the serving term, to a splendid termly dinner in the house of the Senior Member.

Sacred Music in Rome: 'mediocrity and paralysis'

Given the emphasis on culture of the present Pope, and the emphasis on Gregorian Chant of the Second Vatican Council, it is truly shocking to read such things from the respected Italian journalist Sandro Magister. It is reported and commented on by Fr John Zulhsdorf.

It is particularly interesting to hear that the Sistine Chapel Choir have earned the nickname the 'Sistine Screamers'. Oxford's Chant Schola may not be so far behind the centre of the Catholic world in the restoration of liturgical music.