Golden Jubilee 1967-2017
As you will all know by now we will be celebrating our Golden Jubilee next year, and there are a whole host of events being planned for the year observing our heritage, music, art, liturgy, our people and our future. There has been a small group of people meeting for almost 3 years now and it is hoped that the programme that has been put together will have some appeal for everyone. One of the first things to come to fruition is our new gold Cathedral logo that we will be using as our brand for next year, and to see it actually transferred onto a banner for the main entrance was very exciting. It has been a challenge for our Art Department as the particular gold colour that we wanted was hard to source, but like everything they do the end result is amazing. Seeing the banner in situ did bring home to me that actually we have only have a relatively short time now to get the final details sorted out. There still seems an awful lot to do!
One of the projects that I have been tasked with is to organise the Flower Festival for 2017. I am not quite sure how this landed on me as at the moment I don’t know my dandelions from my dahlias, but I am banking on the expertise and knowledge of some of the flower arranging groups and individuals that have already signed up. The theme of the Festival is Cathedral Life: A Floral Tribute, (personally I preferred The Flower and the Glory but this was dismissed at an earlier stage!) and the idea is that each Chapel around the Cathedral will in some way depict the different liturgical seasons and the sacraments that are received at the Cathedral.
We have an initial meeting of anyone who might be interested in preparing a display – they don’t have to be extravagant, large ones – leave that to the experts! If you would like to know more, or have a friend or relative who you think might be interested in helping out please ask them to contact me direct.
You will have to have some experience of preparing flower displays either in your own home or parish, and a great deal of enthusiasm, but other than that it would be great to have you involved.
Our first meeting, when groups will choose which Chapel they want to decorate will be on Tuesday 1 November at 2.00pm in the Gibberd Room and we have another one if you can’t make due to take place on Thursday 24 November at the same time. Some of the groups who have signed up took part in the last Flower Festival held at the Cathedral and have fond memories of Sr Anthony being in charge. One lady I spoke to on the telephone was very upset that Sr Anthony was not going to be organising it this time around. I have big shoes to follow in, and I hope that I manage to make Sr Anthony proud! So you can get the date in your own diary the Festival will open to the public on Friday 2 June and run right over the weekend of celebrations until Monday 5 June. ‘Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.’ Exciting times ahead!
Looking not so far ahead to Tuesday next week we celebrate the Feast of ALL Saints and all Souls on Wednesday. The Fauré Requiem will be sung by the Cathedral Choir at the 5.15pm Mass on Wednesday.
We have the Cathedral Book Club meeting on Thursday evening at 7pm in the Gibberd Room. Don’t worry if you have started the book and not finished it, or didn’t like it at all – please just come along to meet new friends and to have a chat over a glass of wine!
Claire Hanlon, Assistant to the Dean
(Canon Anthony O’Brien is away)
