October is definitely a month of ceremony, being the start of the year for many parts of Oxford life.  The Frideswide service is an annual event that marks the founding of Oxford by St. Frideswide sometime around the 7th or 8th Century of the Common Era.  There is a good BBC article which tells you more about this.

The service is at Christ Church in the Cathedral and this year focussed on Care of Creation.  We heard three local folk interviewed by the Bishop of Dorchester.  Averil Stedeford has made her house in Headington very green and it is now quite famous.  Malcolm McCulloch, an Oxford academic talked about the green aspects of his research and Jenny Creese spoke about the Connecting Naturally project.

Part of the service involves a big procession to say prayers for St. Frideswide and also leave sprigs of rosemary on her tomb, as a mark of remembrance.