Weekly Record

27th July 2008

Having written about the proposals regarding the future use of St Vincents Church as a centre for the celebration of the Latin Mass (Tridentine Rite) two weeks ago, following final consultation on this with local parishioners and the Diocesan Council of Priests, the Archbishop has decided not to go ahead with this proposal. St Vincents will remain as a twinned parish with St Patricks and Our Lady of Mount Carmel and will not be the diocesan church designated for the celebration of mass in Latin. This also means that the Cathedral parish boundaries will not change to include the parish of St Vincent.

With all our musicians and singers on tour in London the sacristy corridor has suddenly become a very quiet zone and hopefully over the next couple of weeks some of the other behind the scenes areas of the Cathedral will quieten down for the weeks of August. This is normally a very productive time to deal with and sort out issues that were not urgent and postponed until there was time, to prepare for some future events and to catch up on necessary reading and documents and to tidy up the offices.

One factor which should keep us busy in August will be the commissioning of the new lift and link areas from the Cathedral to the Crypt. The hoarding in the East Apse will come down this week and until the lift is in use all that you will see are a modified set of rails and two new wooden doors. Behind these doors is a whole new Cathedral area on three levels. One of the first tasks we will face will be re-housing the Diocesan Archives in their new home on the middle level of this new area. This will probably be quite labour intensive and may take some time before everything is stored correctly and this area is fully functional. I still can’t believe the transformation that has taken place on this new middle level to create reading rooms, offices, archive storage and new toilet provision for the Cathedral. Previously this area was just rubble and an empty void between Cathedral and Crypt.

One thing I haven’t done yet is to try the new lift to see if it is working but there will be plenty of time to do that before it is open to the general public. The glazed area that surrounds the lift will be a real sunspot in good weather and provides a good internal view of the podium and surrounding buildings to the Cathedral.
The forthcoming week is rather uneventful. There will be no Sung Evening Prayer on the two weekdays or Sundays until September nor any Sung Masses except at the weekends. Next Saturday there is our monthly Car Boot Sale from 8-12 in the Cathedral car park. To any families who are travelling away on holiday this week we wish you a safe journey and hope all of us manage to find some time to slow down and relax a bit more during the holiday period.

Canon Anthony O’Brien
Cathedral Dean