Weekly Record

23rd March 2008

Happy Easter.
May the Joy and Blessing of the Risen Lord be
With You All.

Other than wishing you all a Happy Easter I was wondering what was the point of writing a Cathedral Record this week. There is so much going on in Holy Week and there has been such an amount of printing of service sheets and information that there is very little left to say. But it is a recognised fact that clergy learn very quickly the art of saying very little in a protracted way.

This is one of the busiest weeks of the year in the life of the Cathedral and it is important that we acknowledge the hard work of the many people who ensured that the services were celebrated with such dignity and splendour. The welcome people received, the preparation of the Cathedral and the planning of the services, the hard work to ensure that the liturgy was right, the music rehearsed and the Cathedral suitably adorned for Easter. We owe a debt of gratitude to staff and volunteers for all their hard work.

The normal lull for a few days after Easter Sunday, unfortunately, will not be possible this year. Almost straight after the Easter services the BBC begin recording solo items and then the congregational hymns for ‘Songs of Praise’ will be recorded on Bank Holiday Monday. The Archbishop is lucky, as he gets to record his prayer on Sunday, whereas I will have to hang around all of Monday to record a prayer and blessing. I will probably have to fight my way through hordes of Aled Jones groupies. The Cathedral will not be clear of BBC equipment until Wednesday evening.

We were hoping to hold the All Angels concert next Friday evening but sadly this has now been cancelled – I was looking forward to welcoming them to the Cathedral.

The construction work resumes from Tuesday with the race on to complete the steel casing for the outside structure in time for the installation of the lift and the glazing. There has been some vandalism by skateboarders to the external areas so I’m hoping they all return to school or college within the next few days and keep away from the construction areas. The external area to the Concert Room in the Crypt has now been fully excavated and this will be paved and landscaped over the next few months. Giving us two vastly improved external entrances at either end of the Crypt as well as the lift under construction. It is difficult to describe all that is taking place behind the hoardings and cordoned off areas but you will have to take my word for it that access and facilities will be greatly improved.

Canon Anthony O'Brien
Cathedral Dean