A message from the Dean - 17 April 2020
Dear Friends,
I followed yesterday's Government press conference keenly: three more weeks of lockdown and then a transition period when a proportion of everyday activities become accessible again, such as school and working life. I never expected lockdown to be short and sharp given the experience of other countries. Looking abroad we see that the last (and riskiest) things to become available are the ability to assemble and to socialise. That knocks much Church activity squarely on the head!
To counter our current difficulties, the Cathedral staff have worked creatively and imaginatively to maintain our cycle of worship and especially during Holy Week (a round of applause for all concerned, please). You'll be interested in the numbers: we've had more online worshippers at mid-week services than ever before. Sixty people tune in to Morning Prayer each day on average (that's ten times the actual attendance in the Cathedral). By the 15th April we had live-streamed 54 services, published 5 pre-recorded services, 3 Children's Church videos and 4 Stations of the Cross videos. Our congregation for Morning Prayer has had people from Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, France, California and Indonesia. How do we know? We've had prayer requests from them and the social media analysis tells us the rest. To blow the trumpet a bit more, the Cathedral is the fourth most popular cathedral on social media (St. Paul's is first, Durham is second, York is third). The level of engagement we enjoy, though, is the highest in the country. People respond to our social media posts in a positive way with comments, re-posts and by spending time on our website and watching services, not simply seeing a picture and then moving on. We even have evidence that one of our online worshippers talks to all their friends whilst praying with us. This is multi-tasking at a new level.
So, to complete the analysis:
- Palm Sunday saw 244 people view the 0800 Eucharist (usual attendance is between 20-30)
- The 1030 Eucharist had 739 viewers (usual attendance on Palm Sunday is just over half that figure)
- Stations of the Cross (in four parts) had an average viewing of 212 each showing (normally fewer than 40 attend)
- On Maundy Thursday 449 viewed the Liturgy of the Last Supper and 304 viewed The Watch
- The Good Friday Liturgy had 504 viewers
- On Easter Day 61 people tuned in for the Vigil with Bishop Michael, 51 watched Canon Andrew Stead light the Paschal Candle and sing the Easter Proclamation (Exultet). 420 watched the ceremony later in the day.
- 129 people watched the 0800 Eucharist live, 806 viewed the 1030 Eucharist (259 watched it in real time)
If you have been a contributor to one or many of those figures, let me say 'Thank You'. Thank you too for your comment and appreciation. It was gratefully received and passed to all the team. Thank you too for sharing what you've seen and heard on social media and for personally commending the Cathedral's worship to your social, work, and family circle. People often find their way to God by someone opening a door or accompanying the search, or just by letting people know how much your faith means to us. In this digital age, we have many more ways to influence and befriend.
However, as the epidemic continues we are all affected by the sadness of so many deaths and apprehensive about risks to our health and our long-term economic prosperity. A global health crisis such as this shows the cracks and weaknesses in our politics and institutions. It's all very well for the UK to be doing its bit to produce an anti-Covid-19 vaccine, but what if that scientific effort had some global leadership and co-ordination where we weren't competing but collaborating? How much attention can we give to the world's poorest people, such as those trapped in the vast urban slums of Latin America, Africa and Asia? Social distancing and isolation will be impossible conditions for many to meet. As we have experienced cleaner air and wildlife thriving again, will it be possible to see the crisis as a pointer to what we really need to strive for? An environment where all flourish?
It's been heartening to see so much solidarity and sense of resolve break out in our country. It's tremendous to see the NHS hailed for the treasure it is, but when we see hospitals and staff, GP's surgeries, pharmacies and care homes put at risk by a lack of equipment and only speculative and non-systematic approaches being taken to testing for the virus and detection of spread, we have got to resolve to fund health and social care with the priority and importance it needs. It's good we have been hailing the heroes of the NHS every Thursday evening: perhaps voting to pay tax to support the NHS might be the less sentimental but more sustainable way to a better future? The British have a funny relationship with ideas of state, and state provision; but one thing is for sure, when catastrophe and threats to life, livelihoods and community strike, only the state is big enough to get us all through. As a society we like to merge public and private, it brings some great benefits: small concerns can meet needs quickly and effectively. Think how virtually all hospice care in this country is run by charities. We get a lot done this way. But what this crisis proves is that we need one another as never before. None of us has all the skill, power and ingenuity to help live in peace, sustainably and creatively, but with more communal investment in what we can be together, we might also secure more satisfying personal lives too.
It's in no-one's interests to close down thinking and planning for life post-Covid-19. We Christians are Easter people: our message is always to fix our trust in the renewing and transforming purposes of God. So, in this continued time of lockdown (likely to see us in isolation for the whole of the Easter season), I'm inviting you to join me in preparing for Pentecost when the Holy Spirit anointed and propelled the first disciples out onto the streets. It's a day foretold by Joel (Ch. 3) when some prophesy and the old dream dreams and the young have visions. It's important that as the lockdown has shown us things about ourselves and our world that we have avoided, ignored or been too hesitant to say, we can, as a Church, find our voice and vision to say and do, without hectoring or moralising, the truth and love that sets us free.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
With love, prayers and blessings,
Adrian
PS. I know I've written at length. Like you, I've had some time on my hands!