*The below message is taken from the weekly Cathedral Record newsletter. The full Cathedral Record is available to pick up from the Cathedral or can be downloaded here.*
Apparently a new event the ‘Scouse 5K Fun Run’ is being held this Sunday morning with the route being concentrated around Rodney, Clarence and Hope Streets and the University area with some closures on parts of Mount Pleasant. Quite why the organisers have chosen this route with rolling road closures affecting both Cathedrals at service times on a Sunday morning seems rather inconsiderate. We were asked if it would cause us any problems some weeks ago, but when we replied that it would, we never received a response back – I presume this implied that we were being consulted after everything had already been finalised! We will be monitoring the impact that this may have on us this Sunday. So apologies for any difficulties you may have experienced getting to the Cathedral by car this morning!
The vast majority of University Students will be moving in to the city for their Freshers week and the start of term which should create a lot more activity around the Cathedral this week. We welcome them back and the priests in Cathedral House are hopeful that the Freshers events in the Student Union finish early and are not too noisy (we can always dream!).
Not to be outdone the Cathedral starts its own literary evenings this Thursday with the first meeting of ‘The Met Book Club’. The first novel chosen is ‘A God in Ruins’ by Kate Atkinson. Along with a number of other people I thought it was based on a religious theme due to the title and various people headed down to St Paul’s Bookshop to acquire a copy only to find out that it is just a popular novel regarding the war and its legacy. As a kind gesture the Sisters ordered some copies in even though it is not normally their policy to stock novels. I have not had a chance to read the book but by all accounts it is an enjoyable read – I’m sure they won’t be short of conversation on Thursday night.
Leading up to our Jubilee Year we are going to carry out a series of interviews, starting this week, entitled ’Take a pew’ which will be on camera and go online. The idea is to ask a series of questions of people who are involved in different aspects of the life of our Cathedral – of all different ages. Questions such as what do they do, how they got involved in the Cathedral, what do they enjoy about the Met, what are their favourite aspects of this place and what coming to the Cathedral means to them? Hopefully it will help to present the human face of the Cathedral. I will be particularly interested to hear the views of some of our older teenagers and young adults. I hope it gets off to a good start with the first few this week.
Next Sunday the Catholic Ramblers have their annual Mass in the Crypt Chapel at 11.30am and the Inclusive Mass with and for the disabled, arranged by Nugent Care, will be at 3.00pm – Archbishop McMahon will preside.
Home Mission Sunday is celebrated today and is themed: PROCLAIM the joy of love. On this day we are encouraged to pray for the work of evangelisation in England and Wales, remembering in our prayers especially those whom we know are distant from the life of faith. Please support the collection which funds the bishops’ national work of evangelisation. The collection also ensures that the Catholic Faith Centre is resourced to respond to those who have questions about the Catholic Faith. Please support the work of Home Mission through your prayers and generosity.
Canon Anthony O’Brien
DEAN
