There is a very healthy and positive atmosphere at the seminary at Wonersh. I normally only get a snapshot on my flying visit from Sunday evening to Monday lunchtime but this week I spent a few days to do some work in the library and to bask in the luxury of regular mealtimes and the discipline of the timetable. Sung Lauds at 7.30am, and the Holy Hour with Compline and Benediction on Thursday evening were particularly beautiful.
The library is well-stocked, though it is an uphill struggle to keep it in order. I love the unbound tomes of Migne and the elusive gems such as Jugie's Theologia Dogmatica Christianorum Orientalium ab Ecclesia Catholica Dissidentium. published by Letouzey et Ané.)
The wheely ladder is necessary to get at some of the Latin tomes useful for an unreconstructed ossified manualist:
Old boys of Wonersh may be interested to see that there is now a lift installed where there used to be a luggage lift. Without this, guests with mobility difficulties would be rather restricted since the stairs to the top of the building provide quite some exercise even for young men.
The installation involved quite a bit of work but the end result is spectacular, with the staircase from the West end of the Ambulacrum completely remodelled entirely in keeping with the existing architecture.
Inside the lift, there is the logo of Stannah Lifts. A student told me that it as a consequence, it had been nicknamed the Chapel of St Anna.
Please remember the students and staff in your prayers.
2 comments:
In a seminary I would have thought that consideration might have been given to an alternative type of lift, but I suppose lack of space and cost would have prevented consideration of installing a "pater noster".
The only one I have used is in the Genetics Department of Glasgow University. Apparently it was installed at the insistence of the founder of the department, Professor Guido "Ponte" Pontecorvo.
Prof Ponte (born at Pisa) was a brother of Bruno Pontecorvo, the nuclear physicist who defected to the USSR in 1950. He was also a brother of film director, Gillo Pontecorvo.
It is good to see Wonersh thriving. I was once chaplian at St Catherine's school just down the road- 20 years ago. A couple of years ago i called in during the vacation with a musician friend and we both platyed the organ in the chapel.
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