Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A theologian and priest who became the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, known for his books and thoughtful views, conservative on doctrine but liberal on social
On the island
Eight records
Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
The hymn tune I've always loved very greatly is called Kingsfold in the hymn books, and one of the hymns that's been written to fit that tune I'm hoping to have at my installation in Canterbury in February.
Five thousand voices at the Royal Albert Hall, conducted by Terry James
I grew up in an environment where we still sang hymns quite a lot. Even rather irreligious teenagers would still sing hymns at parties. My wife finds this incredible. But that at parties when we'd done our Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan, we sang Welsh hymns. Not because we were pious, but because that's what we knew and what we enjoyed singing.
This particular song is one whose words I found even then very, very haunting. The chorus. You know all the words and you've sung all the notes, but you never quite learned the song. That seemed to me to be a very powerful summing up of the problems that people have with relationships with life in general.
Vespro della Beata Vergine: Ave maris stella
Paul Esswood, Louis Halsey Singers and the London Bach Orchestra, conducted by Louis Halsey
The basic tune is a an ancient bit of plain song, very simple. And what Mottevedi does with it is to change the rhythm a little bit, so the very simple theme underlying it is played with, so that it says different things, evokes different feelings, works in different ways. That seems to me not a bad analogy for how we treat the whole basic structure of Christian belief.
Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007: I. PréludeFavourite
The kind of music that speaks most deeply to me often is music that has a very contemplative quality. The music of Bach in particular has had a a unique importance, I suppose, there. To put some of your ideas on hold, to listen to this, to go with it. That for me is a meditative moment and something that I need very very urgently in a a pressured life.
Die Zauberflöte: Quintet (Act I)
The Magic Flute is a very strange opera. It's all about power and violence, and what overcomes power and violence, and at the same time it just produces music that has such utter serenity that at the end of it you've seen a story about how imagination and loyalty love and hope simply lead people through fire and water.
Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248: Herr, dein Mitleid, dein Erbarmen
Pach's Christmas Oratorio is an overwhelming celebration of the gift of God in Jesus Christ, the essential. Christmas Message.
Isaiah's Prophecy (Russian Orthodox Christmas Eve Service)
I did my doctoral research at Oxford on Russian Christianity, having for a long time had a fascination with Russian culture, Russian music, and then with the Russian Church. So I've chosen as this last record some Russian music from the Copplin service for Christmas Eve.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:08Is there a hint of reluctance in your remark that you must do this job with as much conviction and joy as you can?
I think it's very difficult when you're faced with any big job to see it. Entirely positively, because you know your own inadequacies, you know we are likely to fail. And if you've got any sense at all, you know that failing hurts. So, yes, looking at the size of the job and knowing about the failure that's inevitable. It's difficult.
Presenter asks
7:23How close did you get to becoming a monk, and how old were you at the time?
This is really in my early twenties. I spent quite a bit of time in vacations from university, staying in monastic houses and saying my prayers and seeing what it felt like. And then of course my first actual job was in a college run by a monastic community in Yorkshire, at Murfield. And so for two years I followed basically the rule of life of that community. ... And once again, it was, I think, a sense of what was being asked, what was being asked of me at that time was to carry on with teaching.
Presenter asks
9:35What kind of home were you brought up in, and what did your parents do for a living?
My father was an engineer, working for what was then the Ministry of Works, and then became the Department of the Environment, and he used to design heating and lighting systems for public buildings. ... And so it was, I suppose. A family not uncommon in South Wales at that time, the first generation away from the mines, because my father came from a mining family. My mother more from a a farming family.
The keepsakes
The book
W. H. Auden
I'd really rather like to take a book of quite tough poetry that would make me think as well as feel, something like the collected works of WH Orden. Disciplined, quite complex. But full of nourishment.
The luxury
I was tempted to think about a regular supply of chocolate ginger, but... I think I'd rather miss a piano. I wouldn't mind having a piano with me.
Presenter asks
13:31Where did the calling to the clergy come from in you? Did you have a mentor?
I think it had a great deal to do with having inspirational figures around um the local vicar Canon Eddie Hughes, who was, I suppose, the greatest single inspiration for me and my my calling. He was somebody who had a A very lively imagination and intelligence was interested in everything, in everybody. Read widely. Encouraged me to read widely when I was a teenager. and always took absolutely seriously the questions that you asked. So you never felt stupid, and you never felt, oh, you shouldn't ask that. Because he had a a hospitable mind and soul.
Presenter asks
23:35Where was God when the terrible tragedy of September 11th happened?
At one level. God is where God always is, that is, at the center of things, the absolute centre of things. Nothing changes that, nothing alters that. And then you can say. God is in the the vision and the inspiration and the dedication of the people who go in. Compassionately, who risk their lives.
“I love ceremonial when it's well done. Good ceremonial in church is ceremonial that makes you think about God, and bad ceremonial in church is ceremonial that makes you think about bishops.”
“Anything in worship that brings out that. Competitive and anxious streak, I think, is working against the basic purpose of worship.”
“taking the moral high ground is very easy if you don't have to take the actual decisions, and that's always the temptation.”