Inside Newman's St. Mary the Virgin Church, Oxford

Having walked round in circles for some time, we eventually found the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin on the High Street in Oxford city centre:

Earlier in the day, we'd visited John Henry Newman sites at Littlemore, so it was important to find the St. Mary the Virgin church, as this is where Newman served as an Anglican clergyman in the heart of Oxford between 1828 and 1843.

Inside, the church certainly was impressive:

And we, unexpectedly, found a portrait of Newman:

Somewhere near the pulpit if I remember correctly:

Have just read that shortly after Newman became vicar at St. Mary the Virgin, his sermons became popular with undergraduates in the city, and that from the pulpit above, John Keble preached the Assize Sermon of 14 July 1833, commonly viewed as the ignition point of the Oxford Movement which attempted to revive Catholic religiosity inside the Church of England.

However, in 1843, Newman resigned from St. Mary's as he became increasingly disillusioned with Anglicanism, and in 1845, he became a (Roman) Catholic, of course.

I'm currently halfway through Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1865), not far from reaching the point where Newman crosses over from Anglicanism to (Roman) Catholicism.