We welcome an informed and authoritative speaker on an important current topic.

Wednesday 2nd July, 7.30 pm St Michael’s Lecture. The regular programme of lectures returns with Professor Emma Loosely speaking on “Christianity in Syria: Glorious Past, Uncertain Future.” Emma Loosely is Associate Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter. After graduating from a PhD in Late Antique Syria at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), she spent three years living and working as an archaeologist, fund-raiser, secretary and potato-peeler for the Community of Al-Khalil at Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi in Syria. The Community is dedicated to hospitality and Christian-Islamic dialogue. She spent the summers directing an archaeological excavation for the Community at their other monastery, Deir Mar Elian in Qaryatayn. (Image)

She also worked for the Abu Dhabi Ministry of Information as an archaeologist studying the artefacts found at a sixth-century monastery on the island of Sir Bani Yas. She has taught Oriental Christian and Islamic Art at the University of Manchester, where she was appointed Senior Lecturer. Since 2012, she has been working on a five-year European Research Council funded project entitled Architecture and Asceticism: Cultural Interaction between Syria and Georgia in Late Antiquity.

All are warmly welcomed to the St Michael’s Lectures and admission is FREE (with a voluntary retiring collection). They are followed by discussion and light refreshments. The lectures are held in St. Michael’s Church (Mount Dinham, Dinham Road, Exeter, EX4 4EB) which has a tall spire and is located by the Iron Bridge on St. David’s Hill. For further information, or to discuss disabled access, contact David Beadle at dnb201@ex.ac.uk

Also thank you to everyone involved in and/or attending the Heritage & Music Festival. A few thoughts and pictures from the last week.

Bp Richard Hawkins dedicates the new Organ

Bp Richard Hawkins blesses the new Organ

Sunday 22nd June, 6pm Evensong & Dedication of the new Organ. Thanks to Bishop Richard Hawkins and Fr David Hastings for this special service, and to Alex, Nigel & Neil for the Organ music. Also to visitors who swelled the choir for Balfour-Gardner’s Evening Hymn and the Stanfordfest; come again. We are again grateful to Heritage Lottery Fund, Viridor Credits and our many generous donors who have made installing this splendid organ possible.

Carillon de Westminster – Neil Page

Wednesday 25th June, 7.30pm Heritage Lecture. Paul Morgan (Exeter Cathedral Organist Emeritus) gave an entertaining and moving talk on the difficult life and lasting achievements of Samuel Sebastian Wesley. Having left a promising career in London to find Hereford Cathedral in dire musical straits, repeated clashes with difficult clergy meant that Exeter, Leeds, Winchester and Gloucester also had the benefit of the most talented organist and composer of his generation.

Prayers at the Tomb of John Dinham

Friday 27th June, 7.30pm Requiem Mass. In a simple Sung Mass with the Requiem Propers, two dozen or so gathered to honour the memory of John Dinham, Exeter Tea Merchant, Philanthropist and Founder of the Mount Dinham development on the 150th Anniversary of his death . After the service we processed over the Iron Bridge to offer our prayers at the tomb of John Dinham and his wife Susanna in the cemetery above Exe Street.

At the Tomb of John and Susanna Dinham