A Busy June
June is always a busy month in the ‘ordinary’ life of the Cathedral without having to consider Grand Dinners and Flower Festivals, and you might have thought that we could all have taken a well deserved rest after the Golden Jubilee celebrations over the first weekend of the month but nothing could be further from the truth. We are so diverse in what we do here, sometimes just thinking about what happens next makes us dizzy! As well as the usual routine of guided tours and educational visits being squeezed in before the summer holiday starts, we are hosting the Canons for their Mass on Tuesday, sign language training courses, voice trials for prospective new boy and girl choristers, school rehearsals for their own Masses later on in the month, and then on Saturday at 11.00am we are expecting hundreds of altar servers from across the Diocese to attend their annual Guild of St Stephen Mass when they will all stand before the Archbishop and renew their commitment to serving. For those of you that are unaware of the Guild of St Stephen, the objectives are as follows: To encourage, positively and practically, the highest standards of serving at the Church’s liturgy and so contribute to the whole community’s participation in a more fruitful worship of God. To provide altar servers with a greater understanding of what they are doing so that they may serve with increasing reverence and prayerfulness and thereby be led to a deepening response to their vocation in life. To unite servers of different parishes and dioceses for their mutual support and encouragement. We are blessed with a strong, enthusiastic group of altar servers at the Cathedral who give up their time so willingly to serve at all the Masses and who guide and teach those who come to visit us throughout the year. I hope they all know that they are appreciated and will be out in force next Saturday morning.
Now, this is exciting news!! Just before the Jubilee weekend we were informed that we had been successful in a grant application that we had made some months ago to the Heritage Lottery Fund. This funding means that we can now put together an exhibition entitled ‘A New Cathedral, 1960’.
The exhibition will bring together for the first time a selection of submissions from the 1960 architectural competition for our Cathedral.
As one of the major architectural competitions of the post-war period, it attracted international attention, with 299 entries from around the world. This unique exhibition, which has been produced by Liverpool John Moores University will also include newly commissioned physical models of key schemes. It will be located within the main entrance porch of the Cathedral and it will be a wonderful opportunity for the public to see some of the alternative designs, with contemporary reflections upon their merits. The exhibition will run from 24 July until 3 September from 10.00am each day and there will be free entry. I have had the privilege of seeing some of the entries that were submitted but did not win, and it is fascinating. I urge you to make a note of the date and make it one of the things you do in Liverpool this summer!
Currently, according to Trip Advisor, visiting the Met Cathedral is number 13 on the list of places to visit after the Anglican Cathedral, Anfield Stadium and the Liverpool homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, to name a few. So come along in the summer and let’s try and get us higher up the list!
Finally, following the Flower Festival, a good number of people asked me if we would be producing any postcards or notelets with the wonderful exhibits featuring on them. We are! We have some wonderful photos to choose from so watch this space and make sure that you put your name down to be the first to receive a set.
Claire Hanlon, Executive Assistant to the Dean
*Canon Anthony O’Brien is away*
