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Worcester Chapel is a place to sit, to breathe, to pray, to worship, to take time and be a little bit more human again. Everyone is welcome in the Chapel – of any faith or none – and our chaplaincy and music teams engage with students, staff and visitors across the College.

Chapel team stood inside the chapel

HILARY 2025

This term’s Chapel services and music

TERM CARD SERVICES & MUSIC LIST

Our choral services, based in the rites of the Church of England, are likewise open to everyone – whether faith is new or familiar or totally alien to you, and whatever life-story you bring as you join us. Our aim is to offer peace and hope and a few moments with eternity as we come before God together day by day. Our hope is that our whole community might find a safe space and an inspiration in our music and our prayers.

Although our services happen throughout the week, Sunday is of course our focus. Each Sunday evening in term-time we hear from speakers from across the Christian traditions. They draw upon their experience to encourage us in faith on topics as varied as All Souls Day and LGBTQIA+ History Month, or sometimes simply and clearly explain the set Bible text of the day.

Worcester Chapel is also home to a varied and dynamic music programme of concerts, and other events, anchored around our phenomenal Choir. The Choir has a particular affinity for contemporary music and is proud to be part of a rich heritage of composition in the College, whose Music fellows have always been distinguished composers.

Do get in contact with us if you have any questions about Chapel services, faith or music. You can also find us on Facebook and X (Twitter).

Chapel team

Headshot of Marcus Green

Chaplain

The Revd Marcus Green

Headshot of Marcus Green

The Revd Marcus Green

Chaplain

Originally from Lancashire, the Revd Marcus Green arrived in Oxford as a student in the mid-80s and read History at Merton and Theology at Wycliffe Hall, before being ordained into the Church in Wales. As far as he knows, he was the first member of his family ever to go to university or get ordained.

He is passionate about worship in the Christian community, particularly music in worship, and has led choirs, orchestras, contemporary worship groups and even jazz bands in different church settings. His first book, Salvation’s Song, is a theology of the cross as worship.

More recently, both nationally and especially within Oxford Diocese, Marcus has been a prominent voice calling for LGBTQ+ equality within the Church. Simply put, he believes that every person is equal and equally loved by God. His second book, The Possibility of Difference, a biblical affirmation of such inclusion, is published by Kevin Mayhew.

Marcus shares his house with a large and (too) friendly Springer Spaniel called Harry, skis badly, is part of the Red half of Manchester, loves opera, runs a community swing band, once won The Weakest Link, and has been known to go to Italy just for the ice cream.

Headshot of Matthew Cheung Salisbury

Assistant Chaplain & College Lecturer in Music

The Revd Dr Matthew Cheung Salisbury

Headshot of Matthew Cheung Salisbury

The Revd Dr Matthew Cheung Salisbury FRHistS

Assistant Chaplain & College Lecturer in Music

Assistant Deputy Dean of Degrees

Education

BA (Toronto), MSLR (Leuven), MSt DPhil (Oxford)

Matthew’s academic formation has spanned music, history, theology, and canon law. A former student at Worcester, he was first appointed College Lecturer in 2010. Over the years he has served as Chairman of the Faculty of Music, as intercollegiate organ scholarships coordinator, as consultant senior researcher in the Faculty of Letters in the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and as adviser to cathedrals, churches, and television and radio producers on musical and liturgical matters. His research has been profiled on BBC Radio and TV.

Matthew is also National Liturgical Adviser to the Church of England.

Director of College Music

Caius Lee

Caius Lee FRSA

Director of College Music

Caius Lee read Music and was Organ Scholar at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, during which time he founded the Florence International Singing Programme. Since 2019, he has been a trustee for Awards for Young Musicians, supporting talented young musicians from low-income families. He has worked with choirs, festivals and played solo recitals in Europe, Asia and South America. Returning to the Diocese of Leeds in 2021 as a Choral Director, Caius lead choirs in his native Bradford before joining Worcester in September 2023. His passion for community engagement and choral excellence has been recognised with a Royal Society of Arts Fellowship (FRSA).

Your faith in Oxford

Oxford is a superb place in which to explore your faith. For Christians, there are any number of excellent churches from every kind of tradition and stream of Christian experience. The College has always had an active Christian Union, and we are delighted to welcome the University Catholic Chaplaincy to Chapel each term for a celebration of Mass. The University’s Muslim Chaplain is based here at Worcester, and the Jewish Chaplaincy is very close to college in Jericho. You can also find support from University chaplains and societies representing several other faiths and denominations.

At Worcester, we celebrate the wide range of cultures and beliefs our students bring to Oxford. Like all the best celebrations, these often revolve around food. As well as the traditional Latin grace before formal meals, we also have a selection of thanksgiving texts from other languages and belief systems. Special events for festivals such as Diwali, Eid and Hanukkah are always extremely popular!

Faith societies in Oxford

Multi-faith prayer room

While the Chapel is open to all, we appreciate that its ornate and very Christian decor means it is not an ideal prayer space for everyone. Our multi-faith prayer room is small, quiet and private, and available 24/7 for Worcester students. It is equipped with mats, cushions and screens, is adjacent to washrooms and a shoe store, and has a library of sacred and theological texts chosen by current students.

Choir singing in Chapel

Worship in the Chapel

Chapel worship begins each day with quiet, spoken Morning Prayer. It’s an invitation to let God shape the journey ahead. Then, most evenings, the choir sings a service – Evensong or a Choral Reflection or a Eucharist, or a few of us sing Compline together. Whatever life brings our way, we are invited to gather in the safety and beauty of the music, letting God’s greater song of love gently heal and restore and strengthen us together.

Our services & worship

Music in the Chapel

Worcester Chapel is also home to a varied and dynamic music programme of concerts and other events, anchored around our phenomenal Choir and world-class visiting soloists. Worcester is unique in Oxford in maintaining a choral tradition comprising both a choir of boy trebles and full SATB choral scholars. Worcester College Choir has a particular affinity for contemporary music and is proud to be part of a rich heritage of composition in the College, whose Music fellows have always been distinguished composers.

Our choir Choral & organ scholarships

Detail from Loggan's drawing of Gloucester Hall, showing the Dining Hall and ruined Chapel

History of the Chapel

People have worshipped on the site of Worcester College for over seven hundred years. The current Chapel is a breath-taking space decorated with paintings, statutes, stained glass and mosaic. It was designed by the Victorian artist and architect William Burges in the 1860s within the shell of an eighteenth-century Chapel erected on the College’s foundation. Burges’ decorative scheme includes all sorts of hidden meanings and fanciful features, meaning every time you visit the Chapel you’re likely to see something you haven’t noticed before.

READ MORE ABOUT THE CHAPEL’S HISTORY