Exploring Prayer and Ways of Praying: Silence, Music, and Icons
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Saturday 1 June 10.30 am – 4 pm
Exploring Prayer and Ways of Praying: Silence, Music, and Icons

Joanna Tulloch, Revd Dr Liz Carmichael,
Sr Clare-Louise SLG, Delvyn Case

Praying with icons of Christ and the chants of Taizé
Joanna will introduce several of the main icons of Christ: the Pantocrator (Lord and Ruler of All), the Holy Face (the Icon Not Made with Hands), the Crucifixion, and the Anastasis (the Resurrection, with the Descent into Hell). She will discuss some Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant approaches to praying with these icons, and will introduce some published resources for prayer. Liz will teach an Easter canon from Taizé and lead a short prayer with a scripture reading, silence, and the Resurrection icon.

Joanna has been interested in icons for more than fifty years and has been painting them since 2005. She lives in Oxford with her husband George. Her book Imperfect Icons, Perfect Love illustrates her earliest icons and offers a prayer-poem for each one. Liz has enjoyed and used the music and style of prayer at Taizé since her first visit at Easter 1970.

Contemplative Prayer: perceptions and preconceptions
Sister Claire-Louise writes: ‘…there are various strange ideas around what contemplative prayer ‘is’, and ‘who it is for’, that Teresa of Avila helps us to explore and can be turned around to say what it really ‘is’!’

Sr Clare-Louise is a member of the Sisters of the Love of God, an Anglican contemplative Community based at Fairacres, Oxford. For many years she has been inspired and encouraged by the Saints of Carmel.

Composing Prayers
Using several of his own works as examples, Delvyn Case will provide a glimpse into how composers approach the significant challenge of setting prayers to music – and how musical settings can shape the ways we think about Scripture and faith.

Delvyn Case is an American composer and musicologist whose work explores how sacred music can serve as a resource for theological thinking, biblical interpretation, and spiritual formation. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford.
Date: 1 June 2024, 10:30 (Saturday, 6th week, Trinity 2024)
Venue: St. Theosevia Trust House, 2 Canterbury Rd. OX26LU
Speakers: Joanna Tulloch, Rev Liz Carmichael (University of Oxford), Prof. Delvyn Case (Massachusetts), Sr Clare-Louise SLG (Sisters of the Love of God)
Organisers: St Theosevia Centre for Christian Spirituality, Claire MacLeod (University of Oxford), Rev Liz Carmichael (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: claire.macleod@theology.ox.ac.uk
Host: St Theosevia Centre for Christian Spirituality
Booking required?: Not required
Booking email: claire.macleod@theology.ox.ac.uk
Cost: Free for students; non-students £5.
Audience: Public
Editors: Liz Carmichael, Claire MacLeod