Author: Richard Morgan

Canterbury

The City of Canterbury in the County of Kent is one of the most picturesque cities of England and is home to the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury the symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Church. 

Founded in 597, Canterbury Cathedral was rebuilt between 1070 and 1077 and greatly enlarged at the beginning of the 12th century and largely rebuilt in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174, The Norman nave and transepts survived until the late 14th century, when they were demolished to make way for the present structures.

Here the Choir of St Paul’s College were warmly welcomed by the Dean the Very Reverend David Monteith and the other clergy and sang Evensong for New Year’s Day and again on 2 January. They delighted the large congregation of locals and a few who had come down from London, after word spread about the splendour of the choir’s music, with the singing of William James’s Australian carol Carol of the Birds, David Drury’s arrangement of Silent Night and Balfour Gardiner’s Evening Hymn. 

The cathedral is the burial place for many interesting people including Bishop William Broughton, first bishop of Australia who was an early advocate for a Church of England college in Sydney. With his involvement in the establishment of the University of Sydney he was against it being a secular institution and therefore opposed the proposal that church residential colleges be established within its grounds. Yet he remained involved with Sir Alfred Stephen in the committee for the establishment of St Paul’s until his return to England in 1852 [See. J M Bennett, Sir Alfred Stephen, 2009 and A Atkinson, Hearts and Minds, 2017]. 

York

Then to the City of York in North Yorkshire where this other ancient settlement boasts one of the finest cathedrals in Europe, York Minster. The under croft contains re-used fabric of c. 1160, but the bulk of the building was constructed between 1220 and 1472 in Perpendicular Gothic style. Being the weekend, the choir was given a busy schedule which started with a very rewarding choral workshop with Robert Hollingworth – winner of numerous Gramophone Awards, artistic director of the internationally-renowned I Fagiolini and the head of the Masters of Solo Voice Ensemble singing at the University of York. Then it was Saturday Evensong with a large congregation filling the choir and on Sunday the Feast of Epiphany, when the 32 choir members and the retinue of 16 followers trudged through the early morning snow up to the Minster, where they sang at Matins, Eucharist and Evensong. 

A special treat was the impromptu unaccompanied singing of Philip Stopford’s 2008 setting of Luli Lulay sung in the incredible acoustic of the octagonal Chapter House. The video below had incredibly been sent to the composer of the work, who messaged the Choir stating that he wished we had invited him along to join in. 

Above pictures and video: Vanessa Agius, Noel Debien, Richard Morgan

Our student leaders and pastoral staff gave their time for professional development over the week before Welcome Week including a two-day retreat to Blackheath. ‘Being a leader’ and ‘being a team’ were two of the most significant topics presented to the students who are College Junior Deans or members of the Students’ Club and Middle Common Room management committees. They were joined by Welcome Week leaders and the Peer Support Leaders back at College on day 3 and completed further development in respect, first responder, mental health and bystander training.   

One of the positive outcomes is having the Junior Deans taking on leading roles in presentations to freshers in Welcome Week (pictured presenting is JD Ed Taylor). They then continuing leading into semester, modelling positive behaviours, mentoring, guiding and inspiring their peers.

Perfect weather greeted over 130 freshers joining the undergraduate community and 31 arriving postgraduates joining Graduate House on their first day at St Paul’s on Monday 17 February. Many of the undergraduates were accompanied by their parents, care-givers and, for those from overseas, their locally-based relatives.

A packed program included arrivals, keycard pick-up and move-in, the traditional welcome ceremony and signing of the College Register, parents’ cocktail party, then Chapel for all new students followed by formal dinner in the Hall. What is exciting this year is the growing number of new Paulines from outside Sydney: 33 from regional NSW, 19 interstate and 20 who live overseas.

Our new members of Graduate House were welcomed at a rooftop lunch by the Dean, Dr Antone Martinho-Truswell, and are representative of a range of higher degrees from across the spectrum of courses offered at The University of Sydney. 

The undergraduates have chosen a wide range of degrees, from Commerce and Engineering being the most popular, to Science (Medicine), Arts, combinations with Law and a range of degrees in the Applied Sciences, Psychology, Design and Politics. We are also seeing the resurgence of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Science amongst the choices.

The welcome ceremony was held in the Waddy Performance Centre Theatre which comfortably catered for the gathering of 400 people. A number of key messages were delivered to the students: the Warden encouraging our students to be “other-centred” and be there for their fellow Paulines; Senior Student Tilly Walker asked freshers “to be your unique self”; and Head of Admissions TJ Christie emphasised that “Paul’s is a place to make deep connections”.

Before the formal dinner in Hall the freshers attended their first St Paul’s College chapel service welcomed by Chaplain Antony Weiss with wonderful music led by the Chapel Choir under Director of Music Jack Stephens.

Welcome Week continued with a broad and deep programme of history, culture, academic writing, drugs and alcohol risks, code of conduct, city and beach visits, university campus tour and visits to other colleges.   

The St Paul’s community welcomes our fresher cohort and look forward to seeing and hearing about their achievements throughout 2025.

Expectations about a visiting Australian choir in London were well and truly exceeded when St Paul’s College Chapel Choir sang their first notes in St Paul’s Cathedral London on 28 December 2024. 48 choir members and supporters undertook an international tour over the 2024 Christmas-2025 New Year season to London, Canterbury, York and Paris.

The St Paul’s College Choir Tour sang for Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral London on Saturday 28 December and then Sung Eucharist and a final evensong on 29th. Every service was packed with London-based and visiting worshipers. On the Sunday 2,500 people filled the Cathedral, with another 1,000 viewing on live-stream, for Eucharist when the choir sang the Howells Collegium Regale and the anthem was Philip Stopford beautiful setting of Lully Lulay.

London was packed with people for end of year events and each service was swelled with visitors from all over the world hearing our choir, who were announced as one of Australia’s best choral ensembles.

The Choir were then the guests of Westminster Abbey for Monday 30th and Tuesday News Year’s Eve Services of Evensong . The congregation was treated to the Australian bush carol Carol of the Birds by William G James. This caused great interest and resulted in a wonderful article in the Sydney Morning Herald by their UK correspondent Rob Harris. For the article in SMH (3 Jan 2025) CLICK HERE

Above pictures: Vanessa Agius, Noel Debien, Richard Morgan

The St Paul’s College Chapel Choir will embark on a highly anticipated tour from Saturday, 28 December 2024, to Thursday, 9 January 2025, performing in some of the world’s most renowned churches and cathedrals.

If you are nearby, all Paulines, their families, and friends are invited to attend the public services and concerts during the tour. Please REGISTER here.

The touring choir consists of members of the 2024 Chapel Choir, as well as choir alumni from the past three years now living in the UK and Europe, all under the direction of Jack Stephens, our Director of Music. Their repertoire spans English church service settings, psalms, responses, anthems, motets, and music ranging from Gregorian Chant to contemporary works composed by current students.

The Choir will be accompanied by our Organist and Composer-in-Residence, David Drury, along with Organ Scholar Bailey Yeates. They will also give solo performances on the grand organs of St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral, York Minster, La Madeleine, Saint-Sulpice, and Saint-Eustache.

For a download of the program poster below CLICK HERE

In memory of Zac Lerner (2003-24) who died peacefully in his sleep at College on 16 March 2024, his family has donated to the College a new major work of outdoor contemporary art by David McCracken, a sculptor based in Auckland. According to McCracken Carlyle and Kurzweil, chasing chasing was a slightly flippant choice of name initially, but turned out to be particularly appropriate. This is his fourth work in a series of circular works, hand-made in steel employing symmetry and “a slightly baroque machine aesthetic” (McCracken), giving a nod to the life Zac led—from Tennis Convener to musician to Paul’s Formal committee to his afro.

The Lerner family has a close association with St Paul’s that began with the commencement of Zac’s eldest brother, Jacob, in 2018. He was followed by brother Ben in 2020 then Zac joined as a fresher in 2022 though his life and time at College were tragically cut short. For Zac’s story CLICK HERE.

The sculpture was unveiled at a ceremony attended by Zac’s family, friends and mates at which it received a Karakia, a Māori blessing, from Paul Samuels, a family friend from NZ.  Entirely handmade, manually cut and welded, it employs no high-tech design or manufacturing. Jacob shared: “McCracken was listening to audiobooks by both authors as he worked on this piece and after hours and days of repetitive welding and grinding it felt like the spirits of the two men were chasing each other around inside his head. Thomas Carlyle, the fulminating reactionary, thundering against progress, and Ray Kurzweil, the hesitant tech-guru sage with his dreams of a techno-optimist future. Only later did Carlyle, who was also a mathematician, do the work in geometry which led to him discovering the so-called Carlyle circle. McCracken went on to find that Ray Kurzweil had written a book entitled The Age of Spiritual Machines.”

The work is impressive and is carefully positioned in the grounds so it is captivating from every angle and frames views of the College, plus those Paulines and visitors who will be passing it every day. 

The College acknowledges the generosity of the Lerner family for such an exciting gift that honours a Pauline whose loss is deeply felt.

The Undergraduate community has chosen its Students Club executive and committee for 2025. Congratulations to the newly elected:

• Senior Student: Matilda Walker
• Honorary Secretary: Jack Dawson
• Honorary Treasurer: Gus Gregg
• Committee Members: Kate Brenner; Will Cox; Jack Rowe; Harry Scambler and Ollie Webster.

The committee-elect begin their roles in the New Year with a retreat to coalesce as a team and to work with the Warden, Dean and residential life staff to formulate plans and goals for the year ahead.

Readers will notice our Senior Student[1] for 2025 is Tilly Walker and we offer her particular congratulations being the first woman to hold this most significant role at St Paul’s. Congratulations on this electoral result. We all wish Tilly and her committee the very best for next year.

The College community acknowledges the work of the incumbent committee under Senior Student Ed Taylor and thanks them for their untiring support for the College, Intercol, and the work they have done and are still doing for the benefit of every member of the St Pau’s community.   

2024 Senior Student – Ed Taylor; Hon Secretary – Alex Robinson; Hon Treasurer – Mitchell Arcus; Rawson Rep – Banjo Cole; Palladian Rep – Nick Stack; and House Committee – Natalie McRory.

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[1] In July 1928 the St Paul’s College Students Club was formed under its first constitution and in so doing elected the Senior Student and committee. Prior to this the senior student was the resident who had been longest on the books of the College.  [see Alan Atkinson, Hearts and Minds, 2017 p 246]