Weekly Record
Fourth Sunday of Advent 20 December 2009  Peace,
at least the visible sign of it, will be returning to our services for
Christmas starting this weekend. The level of risk of the spread of
swine flu has been down graded by medical officers and we have been
advised that we can return to our normal practice of shaking hands for
the sign of peace, distributing communion under both kinds and
replenishing the holy water stoups. It would have felt very strange
wishing people a Happy Christmas with just a courteous nod!
This
Sunday there are copies of a Christmas Grace before meals available for
you to take home and have a child member of the family read out before
your Christmas Dinner. There is also a blessed candle for the Christmas
table which can be lit for the meal to make the connection between mass
and your Christmas celebration at home. Please take one of each at the
end of mass but just one per family so that there is enough to go
around for all the different masses over the weekend. It is
important that you all have a timetable for the various services that
take place here over the Christmas and New Year period. Times differ
from normal over the Christmas period and especially if you have family
or visitors with you may want to check the various times of services to
suit your visitors as well as yourselves. It also means that there are
less phone calls to Cathedral House regarding times of
services-especially if you pass on the information to others who you
know who may wish to know the times of the Christmas services. This
week I bucked up the courage to venture out Christmas shopping. I
thought that I would be fighting through the crowds but was surprised
to find that the shops weren’t too crowded – at least the ones I went
in. No, I’m not referring to ‘Poundland’ either! Part of the Christmas
list for the Cathedral are things like 80 selection boxes, bottles of
wines and spirits, boxes of chocolates and sweets in big numbers and so
it gets a bit fraught by the time you are near to the sales counter and
after the nth joker goes past asking for my address so that ‘they can
come to the party too’ I’m normally devoid of any Christmas spirit. As
a result of the extra stress I seem to lose a hat or gloves or scarf
every year when I go Christmas shopping. This year I left gloves and
hat at the payment till and after I had loaded the car went back to
find that the man behind me in the queue had said that they were his
and had gone off with them. So if you hear of a priest running off with
someones hat and gloves in the New Year you will know that I have found
the culprit. The Cathedral staff were shocked when I returned - the
general consensus of sympathy amounted to ‘Why would anyone else want
to wear a hat like that?’ Our celebrations of the Christmas Feast
begin with first Vespers of Christmas on Christmas Eve at 3pm. This
will be a sung service of Evening Prayer by the girls choir with Carols
and Blessing of the Crib. It is a beautiful family Christmas service.
Midnight Mass will actually begin at Midnight this year with Archbishop
Kelly presiding and, for a change, no outside broadcasting
interference. There is a choice of masses on Christmas Day but please
note that there is no evening mass. There will be a newsletter for
Christmas week but if you don’t receive it before Christmas on behalf
of the Cathedral and all the clergy, sisters and staff we wish you a
happy and peaceful Christmas. Canon Anthony O’Brien
Dean of the Cathedral
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