Weekly Record 4 - 29 January 2012
27 Jan, 2012
CHOOSING A PRESENT
What do you give as a gift for an Archbishop on the occasion of his Golden Jubilee ? Not a question that crops up too often but we’ve had a few phone calls this week from various bodies wanting to mark this special occasion with a gift – but what to give. I did think of socks (purple of course) and hankies or slippers, which always come in handy, but they were considering something a bit more significant. In the past, when a church or building was blessed or opened by a bishop he would normally be given a gift of a an engraved item such as a silver tray or trowel, etc, to mark the occasion – we have a good few examples of these in our Cathedral vaults. But that was a long time ago, times have changed and anyway what do you do with a silver engraved trowel if you’re a bishop - he is hardly going to be laying bricks too often ! Sadly we do more closing than opening these days. The Diocesan collection will pay for the cost of a newly designed crozier - if there are any monies over the Archbishop wants this to go to the work of the church in the Holy Land. But as for gifts from other groups; well, even if we had any ideas they would have to remain a secret. The important thing will be to have a grand celebration as a Diocese to mark such a special anniversary – which we will do on 19th February.
Next Thursday is the Feast of the Presentation. Archbishop Kelly will preside at the 5.15pm evening Mass. This will be a full choral celebration so there will not be a sung Evening Prayer following mass. Mass will begin in the Baptistery with an opening prayer followed by a sung procession to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. The Archbishop will dedicate the new items of altar furnishings that have been designed for the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at this Mass. The present altar cross and candlesticks belong to the Lady altar and were donated by ‘The Catholic Nurses Guild of England and Wales’ in 1967. Their use in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel was for a temporary period until a newly designed set were completed to link with the external and internal glass work throughout the Cathedral. There is also an Ambo with a similar matching design. All of these are a conclusion of a body of work by the German glass artist Raphael Seitz and create a visual link between the celebration of the Eucharist and our witness to Christ in the world (symbolised by the exterior glass columns).
Congratulations to Bishop Malone and Canon Jimmy Collins who both received Honorary Degrees this week from Hope University. Fr Jimmy had a slight heart attack this week so he was not able to receive the honour in person (at least I think he wouldn’t have signed himself out of the hospital to get there ! We pray that he recovers speedily). Both honours are well deserved.
On Wednesday the midday mass will be a Funeral Mass for Paul Rice, the former Chief Executive of Liverpool Commercial District Partnership; Mass will be in the Cathedral not in the Crypt Chapel that day.
Canon Anthony O’Brien Dean