University Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Today I joined Stacey, Tyler, and Jenn at the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin for dinner and a theological discussion. The church has a beautiful crypt café, and they provide a wonderful free dinner on Monday nights. The people from the church were so friendly, but I was so surprised by the small attendance. When Aldene, Melanie, and McKenna arrived as well, there were seven American APU students in a group of about 15 to 20. One of the church workers commented on the fact that the attendance speaks to the state of church attendance by young people in Oxford. University Church is the official church of the University, and this dinner that we attended is targeted at early adults.

One issue that was particularly interesting in the discussion was the issue of literal interpretation and nature of Biblical text. The pastor asserted that since it’s impossible to record someone’s speech word for word, the words spoken by Jesus in the Bible probably weren’t things that he actually said. The conversation then turned to the authority of the Bible if the words can’t be attributed to Jesus. One girl asked if the words written by the authors are then divinely inspired, and the pastor argued against this as well. He said that the Bible’s power lies in the fact that it was written by men who lived at the time of Christ and that they were men who were attempting to follow His teachings. This stance is much more liberal than many in America, and the pastor mentioned that he was interested to hear our American perspectives on the issue. It was very interesting to hear a more liberal interpretation that fits more with the British approach to religion as a whole.

I loved getting to participate in the small discourse with people from other backgrounds and cultures. One girl, Kat, is British, and another girl is German. A Chinese Baptist pastor also was in attendance and sat at our table. He mentioned that Oxford is such a ripe harvest for Chinese students who come to study because it is so much easier to reach them in freethinking England than in more repressed China. The conversation was wonderful, as was the food, and I can’t wait to go back!


The outside of our beautiful church


The vaults and gardens cafe. It is such a wonderful place to drink tea and study!


Inside the church where we attend services on Sundays