Weekly Record

21st October 2007

One of the visits made last week on the Catholic Deans Conference was to Sheffield to tour the Cathedral of Hallam Diocese and to hear of the pastoral life in that area. An issue that we had a presentation on was ‘human trafficking’. There is a specialist unit based there which co-ordinates and disseminates information on the trafficking of young adults. I had initially thought that this was of little relevance in our society but I certainly had my eyes opened. People, especially young women, are brought in to this country and sold on virtually as commodities into a form of enslavement and they had examples of this taking place in most areas of the UK and worse still there were examples of children being sold as well. The service this afternoon at 3.00pm is to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the slave trade and has as its theme ‘Set All Free’ and is a time of prayer and reflection for those enslaved today. There is an exhibition around the Cathedral on the theme which will remain up for the next two weeks.

We welcome ‘Cantores Sine Nomine’ to the Cathedral this Sunday to sing at the Solemn Mass. Half-term holidays take place this week so there will be no sung Masses or Choral Evening Prayer during the week and our own choir will resume singing again next Sunday.

Thanks to all who had stalls and supported the car boot sale last Saturday. Numbers were slightly down on last time but we still managed to raise £400 for the Crypt Project. We will plan to have one in November and December also.

You may have noticed a new display board in the Cathedral, next to the Golden Book Office, providing information on the ‘Friends of the Cathedral Association’. A considerable amount of work has gone on behind the scenes to update and re-brand the notice and the Friends Leaflet. Please take one of the newly designed and printed Friends Leaflets and consider becoming a Friend. The existing membership has declined in recent years and we have tried to provide a more attractive list of benefits to widen the appeal to new members. Over the years the Friends have been responsible for sponsoring many projects within the Cathedral with the Children’s Chapel Tapestry being the most recent. I am grateful to our two sponsors Bolland and Lowe who designed the leaflet and Sloyan Doyle for their help to produce and pay the cost of these. ‘Lord God, bless the work of the Friends Association and sustain the Christian ethos and welcome that is at the heart of the Cathedral’.

Canon Anthony O’Brien
Cathedral Dean