Commemoration
COM MEMOR AT ION
Chapel Address at Commemoration of Benefactors 12 March 2021 Richard Chartres, Baron Chartres, GCVO, ChStJ, PC, FSA (1965) For so many members of Trinity, this past year has entailed isolation. I think especially of the record number of undergraduates admitted at the beginning of the academic year in 2020. Trinity is celebrated for excellence and openness but the abiding memory for many of those who have entered the Great Gate in past years is of friendships. The dedication of the College to the Sacred and Indivisible Trinity is a reminder that human beings achieve their full potential in relationships. The life turned in upon itself is impoverished. As St Anthony the Great declared “we are saved in our neighbour”. In the compulsory Lent we have been enduring, active commemoration seems especially significant. It is certainly a good time to piece together our personal litanies of thanksgiving for our own benefactors; those who have nurtured us; those who have fed our curiosity; those who have provided examples of integrity in the search for truth; those who have given us a vision of the future to live by. I know that I am not alone in having many members of this College in my personal litany of thanksgiving but today is a moment to remember all those who have contributed to building Trinity from its beginnings, when England was on the dim outskirts of European culture, to its privileged position now as a cross roads where men and women from nearly every country in the world can encounter one another in a common search for truth. Contemplating our roll of benefactors, we remember a great variety of people who were not universally estimable. We are bidden “chiefly” to remember King Henry
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