A message from the Dean - 3 April 2020
Dear Friends,
How are you?
That polite conversation-opener has taken on several more degrees of sincerity in the last week. I've had a few distant conversations in the park that began with that question followed by smiles and thumbs-up signs. Everyone is telling us what strange and worrying times we live in. There's no denying it. We're all citizens and I'm sure we are following the Government's advice, guidance and regulation to the letter. But we are in the middle of a uniquely stressful and threatening event that will probably change the way we are used to living.
As a Church we are on the cusp of Holy Week and Easter. It is the climactic heart of the of the Christian year. Normally we keep it communally, recognising that historically Jesus's entry into Jerusalem, his encounters in the Temple, his arrest, trial and execution all took place in public. This year our observance will have to be very different, kept in our own homes by ourselves. More of that later.
But before launching into Cathedral and Liturgical arrangements, I want to commend a great book. (You can buy it online, but shhh, don't quote me on that!) It is by Tim Dee and the title is Greenery: Journeys in Springtime (the publishers are Jonathan Cape, 368 pages, and it sells at £18.99). Why do I recommend it? Because it's an insistence that a day fully lived means "not missing anything - seeing how the world goes by, being with it as it goes". The great human task is to notice what's going on. Tim Dee is a person trying to make sense of things in the autumn of his life. He takes huge delight in dawn: "It is always dawn somewhere, somewhere the first splash of light is falling onto Earth... Every minute about 21 kilometres of the Earth's surface are lit up and come alive with birdsong." He paints a picture of relentlessly joyful re-making that is hard to resist. Read this book if you want a spiritual and mood-changing stimulus. Tim Dee helps us see what all the saints and mystics have taught us: that the first steps to finding God, and his truth lying undiscovered or unnoticed in us, is to be thankful and to pay attention to all that is around us. The doors of perception are the doors to heaven.
As we live with a very contained and curtailed set of circumstances, why not try and see (and hear) things afresh? I'm prescribing this medicine for myself. As one who has had to battle with depression from time to time, I have always found the antidote in thanksgiving and appreciation. Look for the beautiful and the good and there's a salve for the soul and the mind.
How do we keep Holy Week and Easter this year? It is going to be different, but we can all take part. If you don't have access to the internet, please look at what the broadcasters are providing. Radio and T.V. are scheduling plenty of religious coverage. The Church of England will be sending out resources from the Archbishops. Our own Diocese, and we as a Cathedral are making every effort to join forces and ensure that through our websites, Facebook and YouTube we will be enabling everyone to worship.
I am thrilled and delighted that thanks to the skill and ingenuity of Canon Andrew Stead, Ben Lamb, Director of Music, and Peter Walker our Artistic Director we will be able to produce worship enhanced by output from our Choir and Organist and artistic images to focus the eye and the heart. Please tune in at regular service times. In addition, there will be Stations of the Cross every evening (Sunday to Wednesday) and we will keep Maundy Thursday and Good Friday with adapted and shortened liturgies.
The wooden Holy Week Cross will be erected outside the West Front of the Cathedral. If you are walking by the Cathedral, stand still (at the prescribed distance) and pray: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Please also take part in the Holy Week poster campaign and display a poster in your window. Pop them up this Saturday evening with the bottom part folded up. On Easter Day, fold down the bottom section to reveal "Today He is Risen".
Many of you have asked about how the Cathedral is coping financially and many of you have asked me how you can continue your usual giving to the Cathedral at a time when you can’t attend services or visit us in person. Firstly, let me say that the ongoing support of our Cathedral community at this time is needed as much as ever, and we are deeply grateful to all of you who continue to give. Alongside thousands of other organisations across the country, we are using the opportunities given to us by government schemes to look after our staff’s health and financial security by sending the majority home ‘on furlough’, but we are maintaining a small staff team to keep things running and to check on the Cathedral itself and resolve any maintenance issues. With no income coming in from visitors, services or the shop and café, the coming weeks will be challenging for the Cathedral – as I recognise they will be for so many people and businesses everywhere.
The practical answer is that you can drop your weekly giving envelope through the Chapter Office letterbox, perhaps on a day when you include The Close in your daily allowed walk. Please give by cheque rather than cash if at all possible. If you would like to speak to someone about giving in other ways, such as Direct Debit or online donation, you can email development@lichfield-cathedral.org or call the Chapter Office on 01543 622460. If you are able to give during this time, it is much needed and warmly welcomed; if life is too uncertain for you at the moment, then please accept our prayers for you and your family.
Finally, I ask you to pray for one another and for all the national and international effort helping to combat the Covid-19 virus and for all the selfless care our health professionals are giving to so many. Remember this is a global pandemic that has erupted like a volcano on every nation without much exception.
I also ask you to pray and watch over our Cathedral Church. Closure can be attractive to mischief and attack and I ask everyone to be vigilant. Come and walk by and pray as you go.
With my prayers, love, and blessing,
Adrian Dorber
Dean of Lichfield
PS. We are sorry to record the death of Derek Rudge, a long time Guide and Steward. We send our condolences to Janet, his wife, who herself has not been in good health for some time. The Funeral will take place next week.