Lichfield Cathedral Reopens Its Doors to the Public
Following an extended period of closure owing to the Coronavirus outbreak Lichfield Cathedral is reopening its doors to the public for sight-seeing and public worship from Tuesday 14 July.
A steady and considered approach is being taken to reopening with specific times dedicated for visitors and worshippers at the Cathedral to enable thorough cleaning in-between sessions and a safe, welcoming environment.
The Very Revd Adrian Dorber, Dean of Lichfield said: “we are looking forward to welcoming visitors, pilgrims and worshippers back into the cathedral. It’s been good to have had the doors open for private prayer each afternoon since mid-June. Now we are able to extend our hospitality a little more widely. We have been properly cautious about opening. We have put arrangements in place that protect everyone’s health. We won’t be reverting to past custom and practice, so everyone will be asked to check-in. If y ou wish to visit, we’d love to see you in the afternoons, but go on-line to get a timed ticket, and if you attend for prayer and worship, we’d like you to sign in. We know how much people love the cathedral and we appreciate the support and interest the cathedral receives. Please keep visiting, we want to see, you but let’s look after one another by respecting the new arrangements.”
Make sure you book your ticket
Visits to Lichfield Cathedral will resume from Tuesday 14 July, with daily opening times 13.30-16.30 (last entry 16.00). Booking using the online box office is essential, non-ticket holders will be turned away. Many other visitor attractions have taken this approach in order to safely control visitor numbers and aid in the governments ‘Track and Trace’ initiative. Lichfield Cathedral is committed to being free to enter, however they have made the decision to introduce a small temporary charge of £2pp (£5 for a family) to help fund some of the significant changes that have been made to enable visitors back into the medieaval building.
There will be a one-way, self-guided route around the Cathedral with a printable map and information points throughout the visit. Certain areas of the Cathedral will not be open to the public for such as the 13th century Chapter House and its treasure and St Chads Head Chapel as safe distancing can’t be maintained in these spaces.
From Tuesday 14 July there will be two public services held in the Nave of Lichfield Cathedral: Eucharist (12.30 Monday-Saturday and 10.30 on Sunday) and Evening Prayer at 16.30 daily. Seating has been arranged to allow households to sit together easily and for a 2m safe distance to be maintained between households. Friendly volunteers will be on hand to help and sanitising stations on entrance and exit will be available. For the time-being there won’t be any shared books, orders of service, choir or congregational singing and services are likely to be shorter.
Newly appointed Canon Chancellor to Lichfield Cathedral, the Revd Canon Gregory Platten said “I was really moved and delighted that we could be in the Cathedral for my installation service last Sunday. It’s going to be a great privilege to be part of this next chapter in the Cathedral’s future, as we all work together to explore how the future will look. We will be finding out feet over the next few weeks, and services are likely to be quite different for the moment, but we will work seek to offer the very best and most inclusive worship that we can.”
Over the last few months Lichfield Cathedral, like many churches worldwide, has seen a huge increase in service attendance online and there are currently no plans to stop online streaming of daily services. In fact, the Cathedral will still be streaming 3 services daily on Facebook and YouTube.
For more information about online and public services click here