Magdalene College Chapel

30/01/2025

Re-live Magdalene's earliest days as a Monks' Hostel and drop into one (or all!) of our short Latin plainchant services that punctuate the day on 6 Feb. Practice attentiveness to the gift of time in a city where it flies by... All welcome.

30/01/2025

Head out of College for an hour on Sunday night, just 100 yards up the hill to St Giles' church to hold out a candle of hope in the dark. Candlemas is 40 days after Christmas Day, the end of a season of rejoicing in the light no darkness can overcome. All welcome, members of College and the wider community.

06/12/2023

Maria durch ein Dornwald ging (traditional German melody, arranged by Stefan Claas)Magdalene College Choir, CambridgeJames Potter, Precentor & Director of Mu...

28/11/2023

The view from the organ loft on Sunday night.
Thank you to all who came and crammed in our Chapel, the loft, the porch, the aisles... Musical highlights from the Choir included Judith Weir's 'Drop down ye heavens' from the porch sung to hushed and expectant Chapel, leading into processional 'Come thou redeemer of the earth', Andrew Smith's 'Veni redemptor gentium', Goldschmidt, Joubert and glorious descants. Part of Auden's Christmas Oratorio, Kathleen Raine's 'Let in the wind' and our own Rowan Williams's 'Advent Calendar' were poems set alongside the traditional stirring readings from the Prophets, Gospels and Revelation. Perhaps it is all summed up well in our first reading: https://allpoetry.com/Yet-If-His-Majesty-Our-Sovereign-Lord
A blessed and expectant Advent to all our community near and far!
📷 M. Chalakatevaki

28/11/2023

After a moving Advent Carols on Sunday, we are fast-forwarding to celebrate Christmas with all our community before many head home at the weekend. Come and celebrate with stunning music from the Choir (including a new commission) and the traditional readings of the season. We begin with a candlelit procession from Magdalene's First Court up to St Giles's, led by the Choir, and enter the dark church with our candles to hear Once in Royal David's City... Join us! Absolutely everyone welcome in this spacious church.

19/11/2023

Ahead of our Peter Peckard annual commemoration, an event for students. with International Justice Mission:

14/11/2023

CAREERS IN SUSTAINABILITY:
FAITH OR FINANCE, WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE?

Weds 15 November, 7.30pm First Court A6
Rev. Duncan Gray is the founder of a sustainability strategy firm (no idea what that is? come along!) called BRODIE. (https://www.brodiepartners.com/) You won’t have heard of them but you’ll know the companies that he advises - Pepsi, Amazon, McDonald’s, Next, UPS and many more. He’s also a priest working locally in Chesterton and has worked with the national church on climate change. He’s previously worked for WWF and for two of the worlds largest companies Mars and Compass Groups in various roles from logistics to HR.

If you’re interested in careers in sustainability/ESG, how faith can inform business ethics and practice or just in asking someone about the world of work this is a chance to ask anything you’d like.

09/11/2023

Magdalene’s Act of Remembrance will take place in the College Chapel on Remembrance Sunday, 12 November, at 6.00pm. As an international community we meet in sorrow for conflicts past and present, to mourn all whose lives are given and taken away in war, and to pray for peace. The last post will sound and we will keep silence together. Candles will be lit at the First and Second World War Memorials.
Our preacher is the Reverend Dr Margaret Widdess, associate priest at St Botolph’s. The Choir sing Ireland’s Greater love. All are welcome.

29/10/2023

Re-wilding the Bible? Our preacher tonight is Canon Dr Hilary Marlow (Vice-Mistress and DoS in Theology, Girton College; and Divinity Faculty) who researches the Bible and ecology including the portrayal of nature and creation texts and their interpretation in later Jewish and Christian traditions and ecological hermeneutics. She is a trustee of A Rocha UK https://www.facebook.com/Arochaorguk/ She continues our 'Creative Thinking' series at Evensong 6pm. All are welcome. The Choir sing music by Alec Roth, re-wilding familiar texts with his fresh approach!

A Rocha UK is a Christian charity working to protect and restore the natural world and committed to mobilising Christians and churches in the UK to care for the environment.

25/10/2023

Every so often the choir decamps just up the road to St Giles for a service. Join us there for evensong on Thursday at 6.15pm to enjoy music by Faure and Willan in the church's warm acoustic. All welcome.

19/10/2023

'Bach and the Cosmos.' What can music provoke when it comes to engagement with the planet? A theology of creation and a theology of music combine with a sermon on J S Bach. Come and hear renowned theologian and musician the Revd Professor Jeremy Begbie preach at Evensong in the next in our ‘Creative Thinking’ series. The Choir (and congregation) sing Bach. All welcome whether or not you like to sing!

18/10/2023

Step into eternity for 20 minutes tonight. Wednesday 18 October 9pm
‘Compline’ (Night prayer)
A very popular meditative space open to all of any belief
Plainsong prayers from the Choir for the end of the day
Music the monks of Magdalene would have sung in our Chapel centuries ago
Followed by hot chocolate, port and cheese
Come and pray for peace. Be carried by an ancient rhythm of settled trust and constant hope.