Somerville College Chapel is the

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

. The chapel is unique among Oxford colleges because it has no religious affiliation - reflecting the non-sectarian foundation of the college as place for the higher education of women. It can be seen as both a manifestation of the aspirations of liberal Christianity in the interwar years, including the advancement of women and

ecumenism Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

, and of the contestation of the role of religion in higher education among elites in the same period. The chapel is made of

dimension stone Dimension stone is natural stone or rock that has been selected and finished (e.g., trimmed, cut, drilled, ground, or other) to specific sizes or shapes. Color, texture and pattern, and surface finish of the stone are also normal requirements. A ...

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

masonry and is located opposite

Somerville College Library Somerville College Library is the college library of Somerville College, one of the 38 colleges of the University of Oxford. The library is one of the largest college libraries at the University of Oxford and has achieved 100% student satisfact ...

, on the southern side of the main

quad Quad as a word or prefix usually means 'four'. It may refer to: Government * Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States * Quadrilateral group, an informal group which inc ...

. When he visited the chapel in the early 1970s,

Sir Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (19 ...

described it as ''bleakly classical, ashlar, of three windows with narrower altar and lobby protections, bleak also inside - unloved-looking somehow.''

History

The chapel was built with a donation from Somerville alumna

Emily Georgiana Kemp Emily Georgiana Kemp (1860–1939) was a British adventurer, artist and writer. She was awarded the Grande Médaille de Vermeil by the French Société de géographie, Geographical Society for her 1921 work ''Chinese Mettle''. Biography Kem ...

in 1932; Kemp had developed an interest in the world's religions and a wide, inclusive vision of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

through her extensive travels around the world. It was Kemp's desire that the chapel would be a place where members of all nationalities and religions could pray. Like the college, the chapel would be nondenominational, which is unique within the University of Oxford. The chapel was designed by Courtenay Theobald and opened in 1935. It was dedicated to

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

, with only the stained glass window (designed by George Bell) being dedicated to Christ explicitly. On the outside of the chapel, the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

inscription ΟΙΚΟΣ ΠΡΟΣΕΥΧΗΣ ΠΑΣΙ ΤΟΙΣ ΕΘΝΕΣΙΝ translates as ''A House of Prayer for all People''. This is a verse from

Isaiah 56 Isaiah 56 is the fifty-sixth chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets.Theodore Hieb ...

, which is referred to by

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

in the

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and for ...

. Kemp also donated a 19th-century

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

terracotta derived from the '

Annunciation The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...

' in the

Ospedale degli Innocenti The Ospedale degli Innocenti (;) 'Hospital of the Innocents', also known in old Tuscan dialect as the ''Spedale degli Innocenti'', is a historic building in Florence, Italy. It was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, who received the commission in ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, by Andrea della Robbia, the subject of which was symbolic to her of the special importance of women in serving God. Notable

Somervillians The following is a list of notable people associated with Somerville College, Oxford, including alumni and fellows of the college. This list consists almost entirely of women, due to the fact that Somerville College was one of the first two women' ...

commemorated on the chapel's wall are

Constance Coltman Constance Mary Coltman (née Todd; 23 May 1889 - 26 March 1969) was one of the first women ordination, ordained to Minister (Christianity), Christian ministry in Britain. She practised within the Congregational Church. A decade earlier Gertrude von ...

, Britain's first ordained female minister in a mainstream church and

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...

, the novelist and Christian

apologist Apologetics (from Greek , "speaking in defense") is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and ...

, as well as

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

, the first female

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...

. There is also a commemoration of

Emily Penrose Dame Emily Penrose, (18 September 1858 – 26 January 1942) was an ancient historian and principal of three early women's university colleges in the United Kingdom: Bedford College from 1893 until 1898, Royal Holloway College from 1898 until ...

, the third principal.

Use

The chapel does not have a

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

but a ''Chapel Director'' due to the nondenominational tradition of the college. The current Chapel Director is Monty Sharma. In addition to providing opportunities for traditional Christian worship and in keeping with the college's liberal and inclusive tradition, the chapel hosts speakers with a range of religious perspectives. Past invited speakers include

Alister McGrath Alister Edgar McGrath (; born 1953) is a Northern Irish theologian, Anglican priest, intellectual historian, scientist, Christian apologist, and public intellectual. He currently holds the Andreas Idreos Professorship in Science and Religion in ...

Shirley Williams Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, (' Catlin; 27 July 1930 – 12 April 2021) was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in the Labour cabinet from ...

Kallistos Ware Kallistos Ware (born Timothy Richard Ware, 11 September 1934 – 24 August 2022) was an English bishop and theologian of the Eastern Orthodox Church. From 1982, he held the titular bishopric of Diokleia in Phrygia ( gr, Διόκλεια Φρυ ...

Andrew Copson Andrew James William Copson, FRSA, FCMI, MCIPR (born 19 November 1980) is a Humanist leader and writer. He is the Chief Executive of Humanists UK and the President of Humanists International. He has worked for a number of civil and human rig ...

and

Rosamund Bartlett Rosamund Bartlett is a British writer, scholar, lecturer, and translator specializing in Russian literature. Bartlett graduated from Durham University with a first-class degree in Russian. She went on to complete a doctorate at Oxford. Rosamun ...

. There's an annual commemoration service for

who have died during the year. The

Choir of Somerville College The Choir of Somerville College, Oxford, Somerville College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, is mixed voice and is led by a Director of Chapel Music, currently William Dawes, incumbent since 2017. In conjunction with ...

sings in the chapel.

Organ

The

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

of the chapel was made in 1937 by

Harrison & Harrison Harrison & Harrison Ltd is a British company that makes and restores pipe organs, based in Durham and established in Rochdale in 1861. It is well known for its work on instruments such as King's College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, and the R ...

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

Nobel prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner and Kemp's friend

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schwei ...

was the chapel's organ advisor and recommended a Neo-Baroque organ, as this style was popular in the

Organ reform movement The Organ Reform Movement or ''Orgelbewegung'' (also called the Organ Revival Movement) was a mid-20th-century trend in pipe organ building, originating in Germany. The movement was most influential in the United States in the 1930s through 1970s, ...

. However, the college voted for an organ voiced in the style of the

Romantic era Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

. The organ case is made of oak, designed by Theobald, and was renovated in 2012. The instrument is regularly used for solo recitals, concerts and recordings. The chapel also houses a

Steinway & Sons Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to ...

grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, a two-manual

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

Robert Goble Robert Goble (1903–1991) was an English harpsichord builder. The son of Harriet and John Goble, a wheelwright, he grew up in Thursley, Surrey. He first encountered pioneering early-instrument-maker Arnold Dolmetsch and his family in the autumn ...

and a portable

digital piano A digital piano is a type of electronic keyboard instrument designed to serve primarily as an alternative to the traditional acoustic piano, both in how it feels to play and in the sound it produces. Digital pianos use either synthesized emulat ...

Gallery

File:Somerville College Chapel Interior (I).jpg, Interior (East) File:Somerville College Chapel Interior (II).jpg, Interior (West) File:Somerville Annunciation.jpg, Annunciation lunette File:Somerville College Chapel Chair.jpg, Ceremonial chair with college crest File:Somerville College Chapel Window.jpg, Stained glass window File:Somerville College Chapel Inscription.jpg, Inscription above the chapel door

References

Literature

* Architect and Building News. 1935. "The Chapel, Somerville College, Oxford." ''The Architect and Building News'', 22 February,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

: Building and Contract Journals Ltd. * Arweck, Elisabeth; Bullivant, Stephen & Lee, Louis, eds. 2014. ''Secularity and Non-Religion''. London:

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

. * Braybrooke, Marcus. 2013. ''Widening Vision: The World Congress of Faith and the Growing Interfaith Movement''.

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

: Braybrooke Press. * Crompton, Andrew. 2013. "The Architecture of Multifaith Spaces—God Leaves the Building."

The Journal of Architecture ''The Journal of Architecture'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published eight times a year by Routledge on behalf of the Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for ...

18 (4) * Darbishire, Helen. 1962. ''Somerville Chapel Addresses and Other Papers''. London: Headly. * Harvey, Barbara. 1984. ''Address given at the Service of Thanksgiving for Somerville Chapel on Sunday 28th October by Barbara Harvey''. Somerville College Archive. * Harvey, Barbara. 2008. ''Somerville Chapel: A Short History. Address by Barbara Harvey in Somerville Chapel''. Somerville College Archive. * Harvey, Barbara. 2013. ''Address given by Barbara Harvey in Somerville Chapel on Sunday 21st May''. Somerville College Archive. * Johnson, Karla & Laurence, Peter. 2012. "Multi-Faith Religious Spaces on College and University Campuses." Religion and Education 39 (1) * Kemp, Emily G. 1937. Chapel Leaflet, Somerville College Archive.
Moulin-Stożek, D., & Gatty, F. K. (2018). A House of Prayer for all Peoples? The Unique Case of Somerville College Chapel, Oxford. ''Material Religion'', ''14''(1), 83-114.
* Somerville College. 1935. ''Order of the Service at the Dedication of the Chapel.''

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

: Somerville College. * Taylor, Charles. 2007. ''

A Secular Age ''A Secular Age'' is a book written by the philosopher Charles Taylor which was published in 2007 by Harvard University Press on the basis of Taylor's earlier Gifford Lectures (Edinburgh 1998–99). The noted sociologist Robert Bellah has refe ...

''.

Cambridge, MA Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

External links

Somerville College - The ChapelChoir of Somerville College
{{University of Oxford 1935 establishments in England Churches completed in 1935

Chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

Chapels of the University of Oxford