Welcome to our Visitors
We are constantly welcoming visitors to our Cathedral but this week we have a number of special visitors who will be here at different times during the week. On Tuesday and Wednesday many of the Deans of Catholic Cathedrals across England and Wales are here for a short conference. It has been a few years since we last met and there are a considerable number of changes of personnel and some key issues in common to consider so it will be good to welcome those who are relatively new to the role and have time to meet together.
We will have to close the Cathedral on Wednesday afternoon for a live broadcast of Evening Prayer on BBC Radio 3 for the memorial of St John Henry Newman. This will be followed by a recording of Mass to be broadcast on the Feast of the Presentation next February for the Morning Service on Radio 4.
Next Friday, Archbishop Miguel Buendia, Papal Nuncio for England Wales and Scotland, will be coming to Liverpool to bestow a Papal Knighthood on Gerald Pillay, the former Vice Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University. The service will take place at Liverpool Cathedral during Choral Evensong which will certainly be a first time that a papal award has been bestowed in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and perhaps in any other Anglican Cathedral in this country in recent times.
Since his appointment as Nuncio 18 months ago Archbishop Buendia has visited our Co Cathedral in the Isle of Man and now Liverpool Cathedral but he has yet to visit our Cathedral as we haven’t had a suitable occasion taking place to invite him. It is likely that the most appropriate occasion may be for the installation of a new Archbishop of Liverpool whenever that will be announced.
Next Sunday we welcome the Dean and Choirs of Cologne Cathedral who will be singing with our Cathedral Choirs, and Stonyhurst Choir, at the Solemn Mass on the Feast of Saint Edward the Confessor.
Pope Francis has asked for Monday 7th October to be kept as a Day of Prayer and fasting for Peace and Reconciliation in the Holy Land. It is also the Feast day of the Holy Rosary. Archbishop Malcolm will lead Prayers for Peace and the Recitation of the Rosary from 4.30pm on Monday in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel and will preside at the 5pm Mass.
Pope Francis says that “in this dramatic hour of our history, while the winds of war and the fires of violence continue to devastate entire peoples and nations,” the Christian community is reminded of its call to “put itself at the service of humanity”.
Monsignor Anthony O’Brien
Cathedral Dean
