Consecration of the Cathedral
We celebrate the Anniversary of the Consecration and opening of our Cathedral this coming week. Fifty-seven years ago on 13th May Bishop Augustine Harris consecrated the Altar and building and on 14th the Opening Ceremony and first public Mass took place.
This was how they introduced the new building in the brochure that was produced for the opening ceremony. “All over Europe, tall churches gather cities around their flanks. Even today they dwarf factories, town halls and palaces and slums. Many of these buildings are still it’s cities proudest possession. These Cathedrals are temples that satisfy no purely human want. They were built to pray in and were themselves acts of prayer……..Now, for the second time in living memory, Liverpool- which is one of the great cities of the Kingdom-has raised such a shrine. And just as the old Cathedrals were daring, even revolutionary in their time, this new Cathedral of Christ the King is as contemporary as architects and engineers can make it. It rises over a city of vast achievement and tragic history.”
Over the years since the Cathedral opened it has truly been a gathering place where all the major achievements and tragedies and events of the city and within the life of the church have been celebrated.
There are special celebrations this Sunday afternoon to mark the Re-Dedication of the Cathedral organ now that the refurbishment work has been completed and all the various bedding in processes are now complete. There is a talk in the Gibberd Room from 2pm about the organ by Terry Duffy, the first Cathedral organist, and Professor John Rowntree. At 3pm there is a service of Choral Evening Prayer during which the organ will be re-dedicated. This will be followed by a recital by Mr Martin Baker and a reception in the Crypt.
Next Saturday children from the Cathedral parish will make their First Holy Communion at a midday Mass celebrated by Fr Derek. We pray that it will be a special day for all the children, that they will remember and not just as a special event but as the start of their regular relationship with Jesus, who is our bread of life.
Next Sunday Archbishop Malcolm will preside at the Solemn Mass for the Feast of Pentecost and he will confirm four candidates during the celebration.
Canon Anthony O’Brien
Cathedral Dean
