Saturday, March 17, 2012

Centenary Solemn Mass at SS Gregory & Augustine

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 This year the parish church of SS Gregory & Augustine, in the Woodstock Road, Oxford, is celebrating its centenary. It was founded a few years before the re-establishment of the parochial system (in 1918), as a 'mission church', thanks to the efforts of a convert philanthropist Charles Robertson. It was the first church in Oxford to be looked after by the secular clergy: by the time of its construction, not only were the Jesuits long active, but the Capuchin Fransciscans and the Benedictines had both also arrived.

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Monday 12th was the Patronal Feast, that is Pope St Gregory the Great, and there was a splendid Solemn Mass in the evening. There were more than 100 people in the church, with another 20 in the choir loft: a choir of boys from the Oratory School, who accompanied the Mass. They were reprising their role on the same feast in 1941, and sang the same works as their predecessors had done 71 years ago.
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Fr Richar Duffield of the Oxford Oratory preached a very interesting sermon about the founding of the church, which you can read here.
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More photos here.

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