Canterbury at Cal

Canterbury Programs will be on break during Christmastide and the January break.  Programs will resume in late January.  Keep visiting the site for updates!

On Sunday St. Mark’s hosts the festival of nine lessons and carols.

This service was originally instituted at Truro Cathedral in Cornwall, England, based on a medieval vigil service. It was modified in the early twentieth century by the Very Rev. E.M. Millner-White, dean of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, England. Since then, it has been sung annually in King’s College Chapel on Christmas Eve, and here at St. Mark’s since 1942. The service tells through song and scripture the narrative of the incarnation.  This will be our Canterbury event for this week.

The Canterbury House will be open for your final finals push.  Drop by for a little coffee and a study break or a quiet place.

We will open at 10am on Friday morning and run until just after lunch.

During the end of the exam time the Canterbury House is open for hospitality if you need a break or free coffee and wifi if you need a quiet space.  There will be room for both!

The house will be open from 1 -7 on Thursday and then again after Eucharist at 8:30.

Drop by.

On Thursdays during Advent the Canterbury Fellowship gathers for prayer and communion at 7 PM.  This Thursday we will meet in the main church building of St. Mark’s.  Walk down Bancroft Way and come in through the open gate just off the sidewalk.

Communion (holy eucharist, the mass, the Lord’s Supper) is the central act of worship for followers and friends of Jesus throughout the world.  It is a symbolic meal in which we discover the real presence of Jesus, look to the banquet of heaven and strengthen our lives to be loving servants of the family of God.

Each Tuesday at 6:30 there is a prayer in the tradition of Taizé in the canterbury house.  This form of contemplative prayer comes from the community of Taizé in Burgundy, France.  Visited each summer by tens of thousands of young adults, the monastery of Taizé explores reconciliation, simplicity of life and contemplation of God as a community experience.  Visit the website at www.taize.fr

The Canterbury Group will meet between 4 and 4:30 on Tuesday afternoon to head out and spread a little seasonal cheer around campus.  Join us!

Each week Canterbury continues a tradition dating back at least to the 6th century in which Christians sing the final prayers of the day known as Compline (from the Latin for completorium or completion).  Our community uses ancient melodies from eastern and western traditions combined with prayers developed by the Anglican Province of New Zealand.  The melodies ground us in our past while the prayers unite us with the ever expanding realities of faith in the world around us.  This will be the final night prayer of this semester.

This Sunday the Canterbury group will meet at 6:30 for our final Sunday night gathering of this semester.

In honor of the feast of St. Lucy (a Sicilian said to have been martyred ca 304) we will have our usual dinner with cider and glögg followed by the singing of carols in preparation for our caroling event on Tuesday.

During the time of Advent and finals the Canterbury House will be open for hospitality, study space and reflection space. Drop by and use the internet, have a warm drink, visit, study or pray. We hope you’ll join us.