Memories of the Mary Harris Chapel at the University of Exeter

The Mary Harris Chapel at the University of Exeter was consecrated in 1958, and this year celebrates its Diamond Jubilee.

I have fond memories of attending there, although it has to be said that the sermons tended to be very long and rambling. The only one I remember at all is one by the Old Testament Lecturer on the book of Job, which was fascinating, looking at the way in which it dealt with the problem of suffering, the different layers from different authors, all of whom were putting their own ideas in about the central problem: why do good people suffer?

Ken Moss, the Chaplain from 1973 to 1983,  also taught chemistry at the University, and was the Reverend Dr Ken Moss, having a doctorate in chemistry. 

I once amazed a fellow student who was studying organic chemistry by asking him if he had to learn German, and if they still used Beilstein, a famous a sixty volume encyclopedia of chemical compounds and reactions. How did you know about that? I explained that actually it featured in one of Isaac Asimov's Mystery and Murder stories, a short story called ""What's in a Name?". Asimov, of course, had begun his career as a University research chemist, so the facts were all correct.

I can't remember a lot about Ken, apart from the fact that he was Anglo-Catholic and firmly opposed to women priests. I also remember one quotation from him - "Never tell a lie, but don't harp on the truth", which I rather liked, and his argument that as students we should be able to concentrate and happily digest a 30 or 40 minute sermon. That may have been true, if they had been well constructed, but rather like a movie which you feel has expanded beyond its proper length, they would ramble off on all kinds of diversions, and contain what appeared to be a lot of padding.

Now I know that the great orators like Wesley spoke for hours, and of course even our Jersey rectors back in the 17th and 18th century were prone to be long, but I do wonder how many people listened all the way through. Even Wesley, good as he is, does rather go on and on for a long time, and one wonders how much was remembered by his congregations.

For the fact finding geek, Wesley’s sermons vary in length. The early sermons, around 6,000 words long, might take between an hour and an hour and a half to preach. The later sermons are all under 5,000 words.

Even so, 40 minutes is still a lot of time to concentrate. So I'm not entirely convinced by Ken's argument.

Sadly Ken died in 2018. His obituary notice in the paper read:

Revd. Dr Kenneth Charles Moss Passed away peacefully on the 18th March 2018. Loving husband, Father of 3 and Grandfather of 9. A Celebration of his life shall take place at St Peter & St Mary Magdalene Church, Barnstaple, North Devon on the 6th April 2018 at 1.15pm. Donations in Memory of Ken will be for Medecins sans Frontieres c/o A.D Williams Funeral Directors, 9a Fore Street, Northam, Bideford, Devon, EX39 1AW

Returning to the chapel, the communion service was a Sung Eucharist with a student choir, and after there would be coffee and biscuits in one of the University cafe areas (closed on Sunday, hence available).

Hymns were for the most part fairly traditional, with the most modern probably being "Sovereign Lord of All Creation", with phrases that might have been culled from John Robinson's "Honest to God" (1963) - "ground of being", "Jesus Christ, the One for others".

It was written by Stewart Cross in March 1964 for students at the University of Manchester. Entitled 'Renewal', the hymn responded in part to the debate initiated by John Robinson's book Honest to God published in the previous year.

The evening saw much small numbers, sitting in a circle, for compline, where the hymn "Before the Ending of the Day" would be sung to a plainsong chant, unaccompanied. There would be no sermon.

I rather liked that gentle way of saying goodbye to the evening, although I could never quite master the art of sitting cross-legged. Although it is not sitting cross-legged, sitting with chairs in a circle in the winter months in the lady chapel at St Brelade's Church, for Celtic Evening Prayer, has much of the same feeling.

Twice I went with the Exeter University Chaplaincy / Anglican Fellowship in a coach to the  big religious service at Glastonbury, an open air service in the grounds of the ruined Abbey. This photo is either from 1979 or 1980. — with Alex Scott, Roger Reader, Tony Bellows, Alan Griffin, Robert Fox, Rodney Annis (Assistant Chaplain) and Ken Moss (Chaplain).

Roger Reader was training for the priesthood in the Church of England, rather high church, and I believe moved to the Roman Catholic Church where he is still a priest, and Bishop's Prison's Adviser.

I've no idea what happened to the rest of them!

Rodney Annis (he in the scary hat) was quite a lot younger than the other clergy, and seemed in some ways more on our student wavelength. He was rather good fun to talk to, and sometimes invited small groups of students round to his house.

I remember him telling an anecdote about a party he and his wife went to, and after the introductory drinks, people started throwing their car keys on the table! He and his wife immediately realised that it was a wife swapping party! Needless to say they excused themselves and left hurriedly. I still don't know if he was spinning us a yarn, or if it was genuine!

We played a board game called "Risk" at his house - do people play board games any more? And had a nice meal, and probably rather too much to drink. I do remember chatting to a friend on the way back to the student accommodation and, not looking ahead of me, walking bang into a lamp post. I have only done that twice in my life - the other was a Junior Societe trip to France where again there was wine available - and both times it was very painful!

I remember we made up half the rules as we went along, much to the annoyance of Andrew Sinclair, another of my University friends who was there, and who was a stickler for the rulebook. He was a good singer and I remember going to see the first performance of Handel's Messiah in the Northcote Theatre where he was taking part.

It was rather fun going off in the coach to Glastonbury, wandering round the Abbey ruins by myself  (which have an undefinable "aura" to them), taking part, and then after the service itself decamping to the pub to take off our robes and have a half pint of shandy before the return journey.

Back in "civilian" clothes in this picture, I was something of a student rebel. While most students wore casual clothes, I had a tie, v-necked jumper, tie, umbrella, a pipe and of course the obligatory Sherlock Holmes deer-stalker hat. That was my way of being non-conformist and not go with the tide of fashion. Quite elementary!

Robert Fox, Fr Rod Annis, Tony Bellows, Tony Rich

The Chapel was linked to the Anglican Fellowship, one of a number of student clubs which you could join up with. For one year I shared responsibility on the committee for publicity, which also meant preparing posters for any talks, and doing coffees after the morning service. 

At the end of the term there was a gap with no visiting speaker, and I suggested a social evening, where we would start at one pub, and move as the evening progressed to another, and another, making sure that we had to sit with different people in the group each time. This went in the diary as "social evening" but really it was a pub crawl by any other name!

Looking back, I sometimes reflect on what I might like to say to my younger self. And looking these pictures again, it is hard to recognise that naive, fresh-faced, young man that I was. Shy, bookish, although still with a wicked sense of humour -

I still remember watching "Not the Nine O Clock News" with my friends.

I was definitely not quite as eccentric as I am now, although finding a photo in which I whitened my hair with talcum powder and puffed at an unlit pipe, I'm not quite so sure.