PRESS INFORMATION                    

 

  For immediate release                        10 June 2008

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Booklaunch 18 June at Sarum College

 

Sarum Use: The Ancient Customs of Salisbury

 

Author Philip Baxter will give a public talk to launch his book Sarum Use: The Ancient Customs of Salisbury at Sarum College on 18 June. This special event is organised in conjunction with Spire Books, one of the UK’s premier publishers of books on architectural history and related subjects, both secular and ecclesiastical.  The launch is free and open to the public.

Baxter is a leading expert on early liturgical developments at Salisbury and had a distinguished career in church music at Oxford University and Salisbury Cathedral where he was a vicar choral, deputising for the precentor.

 

The Sarum Use was founded on customs for the organisation of music and liturgy, as well as management and finance, employed by the bishop, dean and chapter of Salisbury Cathedral until the Reformation, when its liturgical content was rationalised by Cranmer to form the first English Use in the Common Book of Prayer.

The origins and development of these customs reach back to the early Middle Ages, to Celtic practices, as well as to the Anglo-Saxon customs of royal Sherborne, Sarum, Old and New, refined the traditions with Norman influence and the result was a use which became predominant throughout the English Church.

Sarum College Bookshop is located in Sarum College, 19, The Close, Salisbury SP1 2EE  

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Notes for editors

Sarum College is an independent ecumenical Christian centre for learning, hospitality and spiritual growth based at 19 The Close, Salisbury, SP1 2EE. Sarum College receives no regular funding from churches or other public bodies, and is a registered charity (no. 309501).

 

Spire Books is a specialist publishing house with titles on architectural history and related subjects. The postal address is:  Spire Books Ltd, PO Box 2336, Reading, RG4 5WJ.

 

For more information, please contact: