CHAPEL 1991-92 In recent editions of The Peterite, the Chapel notes have included a reference to the Community of the Resurrection — the Anglican monastic community at Mirfield. For the past five years, Fr. Barry Orford has spent a week with us during the Easter Term. He came again this year and was, as we have come to expect, a stimulating presence in the School. A particularly enjoyable part of his visit was a day's walking in Swaledale with a group of staff and pupils. Some very good discussions took place that day. Our links with Mirfield continue to grow. A group again went to join the Community for their Festival Mass on All Saints' Day, and to have supper with the monks afterwards; the Confirmation group again went to Mirfield for an evening shortly before the Confirmation; and the College Cricket team came to St. Peter's for a return match, and this looks like becoming an annual fixture. This year I was asked to go to the College (which the Community runs, training men for the Anglican priesthood) to talk to final year ordinands about School chaplaincy, and out of this came a request for two ordinands to do a two-week residential placement at St. Peter's in September. This request coincided with a similar request from Lincoln Theological College, and we look forward to the three ordinands being with us in September. I hope that the placements will be enjoyable and stimulating for the ordinands and also for the St. Peter's community, as pupils are given the opportunity to meet and talk with three young men who are preparing for the priesthood. A full report on the placements will appear next year. Our visitors this year have included: Fr. Michael Marsden, from St. Wilfrid's Roman Catholic Church in the city; the Revd. Stuart Taylor, the Director of the Bloxham Project; Sister Catherine, O.H.P.; the Revd. Leon Carberry, from the Minster; and the Revd. Michael Searle, who preached at our Remembrance Service. The Head Master took Chapel in the week leading up to the Remembrance Service, and spoke about some of the poetry of the First World War. David Hughes led a week's Chapel, as did the School's Amnesty International group. Dick Hubbard and I did a week on Science and Religion. This followed up a very interesting address to the Science Society which the Archbishop of York gave in November on The interface of science and religion. This issue has certainly been given a good airing this year. The new Bishop of Selby preached at Choral Evensong in September and conducted our Confirmation Service in May. Nineteen Peterites were confirmed, five of them being baptised in the Chapel during the Eucharist on the previous Sunday evening. The Advent Carol Service was again a very beautiful occasion, the first half being by candlelight. The Christmas Carol Service and the Service of Words and Music for Lent were both well supported. I thank Andrew
Wright and the musicians for the high standard of their contributions to our worship. The quality of the music in Chapel has been greatly enhanced this year by the new Chapel Organ — an article about which appears elsewhere in the magazine. We spent the Easter Term without an organ (except for a small one-manual instrument loaned to us by Geoffrey Coffin, the organ-builder), and the Chapel singing was led by this instrument and the piano being played in tandem! The Peterite enjoyment of singing carried us through a less than easy term, with Keith Pemberton having constantly to assault the piano! The Sunday evening voluntary Eucharists have continued to attract a small but dedicated group of staff and pupils. Andrew Moxon has played the piano for us each week — both to accompany the hymns and to play during the administration. I thank him warmly for his helpful and much appreciated contributions to these Services. We again had a Leavers' Eucharist in May, before the U.VI left. We are currently experimenting with a termly Eucharist for the whole School — on major days on the Church's calendar such as Ash Wednesday and Ascension Day. I have been very encouraged by these Eucharists, which have given the whole community the opportunity to experience the central act of Christian worship. The Services have been conducted with ceremony, and I hope that the drama and the ritual have spoken to people in a different way to the inevitably more cerebral nature of normal Chapel. A study group for senior pupils has met on a few occasions during the year. This is something which I should like to build up in the future, as it is important that opportunities are provided for pupils to explore the Christian faith in a setting which allows them to question and to discuss. Our charitable giving this year is being given to: York and District against Motor Neurone Disease; the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; and the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind. The year ended with the Leavers' Service in Chapel. The address was given by John Owen-Barnett. He spoke in his own inimitable style, and his words were much enjoyed and appreciated. At the Commemoration Service in the Minster we welcomed the Bishop of Sherborne, the Rt. Revd. John Kirkham, as our preacher. S. C. Harvex
THE NEW CHAPEL ORGAN The Chapel pipe organ has been developed only once before in its history. Originally, it comprised just nine stops divided between a single manual (the Great Organ)
