The Queen's College Record 2023

periods of the day. I also had the chance to meet many people and create deeper
relationships with those around me; in fact I am still good friends with Yui, and
I visited her again in Tokyo this year. It also felt good to contribute towards the active
use of the pilgrimage route. Many Japanese people do not even know the Kumano
Kodo exists, let alone hike it, and as fewer people use the route, both the physical
maintenance of the trail, and also the history of the path and stop points risks being
forgotten about, so it felt good to use the path and follow in the footsteps of all those
who hiked it before me!
Old Members’ Activities
Samuel Teague
Lakes mini-tour
That the historic heartland of The Queen’s College
is in the North of the country is no secret, and
it was with this knowledge that myself and a
few friends first travelled up to the Lake District
in August 2022. During this short trip, we visited
St Oswald’s, Grasmere (one of the Church livings
which the College owns) where we sang a service of Choral Evensong. The response
to this single service was exceptionally positive and made it clear (alongside the
explicit invitations to return) that a larger-scale trip was both feasible and desired.
The trip in 2022 saw only five singers as part of the group – therefore, the first order
of business was to assemble a quorate ensemble of musicians with links to Queen’s,
either as current or Old Members of the College, or of the Choir. This was achieved
fairly quickly and allowed us to the approach the College in order to fund the trip.
One of two objectives of the tour was to perform outstanding music at these locations
linked with Queen’s, in order to strengthen/forge new links with the area with which
the College has historically been associated. The Choir (and its alumni) can serve
as some of the best outreach for the College, offering an easy way to engage with
pre-existing communities in the area, as well as to illustrate one of the many facets
of vibrant college life. The first service (Evensong) was sung at All Saints, Renwick;
the site of the foundation estate, for which Queen’s has been Lord of the Manor
since the College was endowed in 1341. This was one of the highlights of the trip,
as it felt like a pseudo-homecoming, singing on land which (aside from the site in
Oxford, obviously) has been continuously affiliated with the College for nearly 700
years. Through contacts made in 2022, we next sang a full concert programme at
Holy Trinity, Brathay (Ambleside) to a remarkably strong audience, despite biblical
amounts of rain for the two hours immediately preceding the concert! We spent the
entirety of the Sunday (9 July) based in Grasmere at St Oswald’s, singing for the
Eucharist and for Evensong, with both services well attended.
College Record 2023 | The Queen’s College 77