'Encaenia' is a Greek word for a festival of renewal; in St John's Gospel
it is traditionally translated 'festival of dedication'. The word corresponds
to the term 'Commencement', from the Latin, used in many North American universities
for the chief ceremony of the academic year. The Oxford Encaenia is the surviving
part
of a more extensive ceremony called 'the Act', which used to include ambitious
musical works, often composed for the occasion, and such traditional features
as a satirical speech, often scurrilous and sometimes scandalous, by an anonymous
speaker known as Terrae Filius, 'Son of the Earth'. The Act was originally
held in St Mary's Church, a setting which many people thought unsuitable.
By 1760 the Encaenia had assumed a form very like that which it has today. It was largely reshaped by the will of Nathaniel, Lord Crewe (1633-1721), successively Rector of Lincoln College, Bishop of Oxford, and Bishop of Durham, who left money to the University for this and other purposes.
Since the 1760s Encaenia has begun with Heads of Colleges and other university dignitaries assembling in full academic dress in a nearby college to enjoy Lord Crewe's benefaction (peaches, strawberries, and champagne), after which they walk in procession to the Sheldonian Theatre.
Order of Procession
University
Marshal
The
Verger
Six
Bedels
The Chancellor
Page
The Junior
Proctor, The Senior Proctor
The Vice Chancellor, The High Steward
The
Assessor
Pro-Chancellors, Heads of Division
Heads of
House, Doctors of Divinity,
Civil Law, Medicine, Letters, Science, and Music
The outgoing President of the
Oxford University Student Union
The outgoing Presidents of the Junior and Middle
Common Rooms of St John's College, Brasenose College, and St Cross College
The Honorands
Dr
Oliver Sacks, Sir William Castell
Ms Toni
Morrison, Dame Gillian Beer
Sir Anthony Leggett, Ms Paula Rego
Dr Christiane Niisslein-Volhard, Sir Michael
Rutter
The Public Orator, The Professor of Poetry
The Registrar
The university dignitaries enter the theatre
in procession; those who are to receive honorary degrees wait in the Divinity
School, opposite the great doors, and are then escorted in by the bedels,
when the proceedings have been opened by the Chancellor (or in his absence
by the Vice Chancellor). Each honorand is introduced by the Public Orator
with a speech in Latin and admitted to his or her new degree by the Chancellor
(or Vice Chancellor). The Orator then delivers the Creweian Oration, on the
events of the past year and in commemoration of the University's benefactors.
In alternate years the second part of this speech is delivered by the Professor
of Poetry.
The Sheldonian Theatre has been used for the Encaenia, and before that for
the Act, since it was completed in 1669. It was paid for by Gilbert Sheldon,
Warden of All Souls College and later Archbishop of Canterbury. A large portrait
of Archbishop Sheldon hangs on the far right above the organ; there is one
of Lord Crewe on the far left. The theatre was the first important commission
of the young Christopher Wren, at that time Savilian Professor of Astronomy
in the University; his portrait hangs above the organ on the right. Wren's
design is an adaptation for the colder north of the roofless theatres of ancient
Rome. It was a great technical feat to design a roof and attic floor which
need no load bearing columns.