Comment, Prose

Communicating Convictions

by Zixin Jiang ‘Jesus never invited anyone to a “lunchtime talk”,’ said a comedian on an Oriel comedy night last year. She was referring to the weekly talks organized by the Christian Union (CU), of which I am a part, on various questions about Christianity. You get a free sandwich lunch, a cookie, a piece […]

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Comment, Prose

A Judgement of Judgement

by Jenny Potter On entering a hospital, one can be asked to describe pain on a scale from one to ten, a comparative measure based on all pain you can remember feeling. In this system a ten is a ten, an unfamiliar yet equally valid ten when compared to any other. Through our limited awareness, […]

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Interview, Prose

Oriel Interviews: ‘Oriel is my size’

by Giorgio Scherrer Marjory Szurko, Oriel’s librarian, likes books, people and Medieval English recipes I’ve been at Oriel for fourteen years now, longer than most staff members. But sometimes, I still discover things about the library that I didn’t know before. That’s always wonderful. And in a library like this there are so many things […]

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Culture, Prose

Crossing Times Crossing Cultures

by Luke Sherridan Staring at the sculpted rock before us, no larger than my hand, I offered an answer: ‘It’s a woman’. We had been asked for our first impressions on this ancient object. ‘And why do you say that?’, asked our guide Dr. Mallica Kumbera Landrus, quickly and excitedly, and with a curiosity which […]

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Prose

‘Misjudgement’ – Kat Wood

by Kat Wood She wasn’t born to be a saint, But modelled to a mind’s ideal And, with celestial restraint, Held hostage by ill-founded zeal. The two had met a single time But in his memory each day Her image changed to one sublime, Venus incarnate, he would say. And so the girl became a […]

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Comment, Diary, Prose

Slow Travel: The Search for Soul in South Korea

by Tobias Thornes Somewhere beneath the steel spires of China’s biggest city lie buried the remnants of a tiny village of ages past. Somewhere – overridden by congested roads and railways, over-trodden by millions of traipsing feet – lie the bones of countless generations now forgotten. It seems ironic that even in a city where […]

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Prose

‘Self-confidence’ – A Poem

by Charlie Willis Self-confidence Nothing you have done wraps its chains around your ankles and drags you away from a sunset streaked with gold, and nothing you have done takes you by the hand and leads you along a lucky path to freedom. For we are all picking things up and trying things out, and […]

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