Weekly Record

1 March 2009

There are the occasional perks to the job of Dean. In preparation for the Grand Dinner that we are holding for the celebration of the completion of the Crypt Works I attended a tasting session last Tuesday. Knowing that I was missing lunch and pancakes back at Cathedral House I was hoping to be suitably recompensed and weighing all things on balance I probably did quite well out of it. Our little panel of three tasters acted like the judges on Masterchef. The caterers had prepared choices for every course along with tastes of different wines to accompany the wonderful food. Canapes, starters, main courses, attempts to make a dessert in a unique shape and home-made chocolates. Comparing one choice against another is not easy when they all taste good and you like them all. I decided that the best policy was to taste away and enjoy and let the other two make the final choices - which they did very well. I’m sure that there must be down sides to doing this for a living but I could quite happily volunteer for this once a week (not during Lent –of course).

In preparation for the installation of the glass columns that will soon adorn the Cathedral Precinct I am due to accompany Terry Gawne, our Surveyor, to Frankfurt, for a final meeting with the artist and construction team. We have to finalise details and technical specifications so that there are no last minute hitches when the columns are erected on site. I confess to being both excited and daunted by the arrival of these. You feel a great deal of responsibility for a commission of a piece of art when you initiated it and it is a bit too late to say that you don’t like it when it arrives on site! There is also the massive headache of having suitable machinery and help to assemble such large structures on site. All will be revealed in a few weeks time.

It was great to see healthy attendances at all the Masses on Ash Wednesday mostly made up of young adults and students. I wonder how they explain the reason for the ashes on their foreheads to their friends on campus – a powerful witness at that age but probably very difficult to explain to those who are not Christian or of no faith.

The First Sunday of Lent is a special day for those adults, from across the Archdiocese, preparing to be received into full communion with the Church. The Archbishop will preside at a special service at 3.00pm to welcome and enrol them for reception in their parishes at Easter.

Please note the extra opportunities for Lenten reflection and seasonal Devotions during the weeks of Lent especially the Tuesday night Lenten Talks by Fr Andrew, Stations of the Cross on Fridays after 12.15pm Mass and the weekly period of Exposition on Friday afternoons. This is quite apart from the daily Masses and morning and evening prayer periods.

Canon Anthony O'Brien
Cathedral Dean