Weekly Record
30th November 2008
This Sunday marks the start of Advent and being such a short season
which can easily be overshadowed by Christmas, it is important that we
announce the new season boldly. “Wake up and stand ready for the coming
of the Lord”. We hope to wake you all up with an Asperges at the
beginning of Mass this week signifying forgiveness, mercy and new hope.
Perhaps the need to tighten our financial belts may change people’s
focus during these weeks of Advent and help us to reaffirm what are our
priorities at this time of the year. On Sunday afternoon at 5pm we have
our Advent Sequence service. Last year it was suggested that we should
have a visual focus for the readings, antiphons and Advent Hymns so
this year we are incorporating a tableau into the service which will
involve St Edward’s pupils. I am still waiting to hear what Adam and
Eve will be wearing.
On Tuesday the Diocesan Finance Committee will be here all morning and
will be inspecting the work that has taken place in the last 15 months,
discussing the final costs of this work and the general state of
Cathedral Finances. Unlike the Chancellor I have no tricks up my sleeve
to meddle with VAT etc to create a feel good factor but we will be in
debt for some time so I hope they don’t give me too hard a time. I saw
a suitable verse in a poem recently. ‘Money talks, I can’t deny. It
spoke to me once and said goodbye.’
Some of the final pieces of work to the Crypt are reaching
completion. The new cabinets which will be used to hold items for the
treasury display in the Pontifical Hall are being built on site, the
smaller lift from Brownlow Hill is being installed and the research and
photography to compile a few brief visitor films about Crypt and
Cathedral are underway. On Wednesday I am off to Manchester Airport for
a brief meeting with a German glass designer, Rafael Seitz, to finalize
details of the proposal for a pair of glass columns which are intended
for installation on the Podium at the Brownlow Hill section of the
site. Before anyone says anything- they will be coated in bullet proof
glass! If approved they will be a fitting monument to all the work that
has gone into transforming the external areas around the Crypt and
Cathedral.
The Feast of St Nicholas occurs at the end of the week – 6th December –
the patron Saint of our primary school and of the former Pro-Cathedral.
The school children, staff, and parents will have Mass in the Crypt on
Friday 5th at 10am to celebrate their feast day. Later on Friday at 1pm
St Mary’s College, Crosby, will be holding their Prize Giving in the
Cathedral.
There are Concerts in the Cathedral on the next two Saturday evenings.
Next Saturday is the Concert Society Christmas Concert at
7.30pm. The following Saturday includes the premier performance of a
piece written by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies which has been commissioned
by the Concert Society for the Year of Culture. Tickets are
available from the Cathedral Gift Shop.
Canon Anthony O'Brien
Cathedral Dean
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