A Message from the Dean - 25 September 2020
Dear Friends,
Just as the Queen called 1992 her “annus horribilis”, I think most of us won’t be rejoicing at our memories of 2020. Yes, at the start of lockdown we saw a real upsurge of community spirit and neighbourliness coupled with a real appreciation for the NHS, but as the months dragged on, and now faced with re-imposed restrictions, there isn’t the same optimism. Worse still, Covid-19 might well be dubbed “the virus that stole Christmas”. Whatever happens between now and 25 December (and I’m writing this piece precisely 3 months before Christmas Day) in terms of public health and national policy, we’re all going to have to imagine and plan for Advent and Christmas with great ingenuity.
Naturally, the Cathedral clergy and management team are thinking about the issue urgently. Social distancing restrictions mean the Cathedral cannot accommodate services and events with maximum capacity. We’ve all appreciated the last few years’ Christmas Tree Festivals but despite our best efforts to envisage it, the Festival couldn’t be staged safely. Schools are being properly cautious about holding big carol services. As a result, the Cathedral won’t be hosting the usual hectic week of school services. Will we be able to sing? That’s still an open question. I hope medical scientific opinion shifts sufficiently to allow some congregational music, even if it’s only humming along to well-known tunes behind face masks. I shiver at the thought of a Christmas without carols. I’m rather glad the politicians are taking a serious interest in the matter. In an age when politics has moved from truth to populism, there are dire consequences for being unpopular. I still remember the Christmas of 1973 when the miners were on strike and the lights only came on intermittently. The following election about “who governs Britain?” got the reply “anyone who can keep the lights on”. Politics can be brutally simple when it impacts on the way we all live. Now I’m not proposing to form the popular people’s front for the liberation of Christmas, but I think it’s well worth writing (politely) to our MPs to register our concern and ask for some joined-up Government thinking. High level studies have taken place about singing and its potential to spread the virus. Who is going to weigh the evidence in a timely manner? Who is going to frame any regulation or lifting of the current ban? Will decisions be made in good time and communicated appropriately? As the popular press used to say: “the public needs to know”.
All very well to harangue the politicians but I’m also clear that as a Cathedral we need to listen carefully to all our supporters, worshippers and friends. What do you expect, appreciate and look forward to in our Advent and Christmas programme? Let me say we are, of course, planning to hold all our usual services. We will continue to live-stream. We will be holding the Christmas Illuminations. But I’d like to hear your views, not just from people who are Cathedral regulars or insiders, but people who might be Christmas attenders only; friends in the community who look to the Cathedral as a focus for their celebrations, anyone who receives this letter and has a view. Remember Cathedral resources are stretched – we cannot of our own effort bring world peace, feed all the hungry and shelter the homeless, much as we want to do these things, but what do you want to see happen that honours the birth of Jesus Christ, spreads his light and joy in our hearts and our world, helps us keep the spirit of festival and love alive at this time and speaks to your concerns and your needs? Short answers are requested (no more than 50 words) either on a post-card (to the Deanery, 16 The Close, Lichfield WS13 7LD or the Cathedral’s email address reception@lichfield-cathedral.org. Please reply by Tuesday 6 October. We cannot acknowledge every response, but we’ll try and harvest all you say and give it serious attention.
On to other more immediate matters. Visitors to the Close will see building work taking place. Preparations are being made to site the new statue of St Chad, designed and sculpted by Peter Walker, our Artist in Residence. The statue has been in gestation (so to speak) for over five years. When Peter took on responsibilities as our Artistic Director it was always with the intention that at the end of his period of residence, he would leave us with what he is best known for – his public sculpture. Our patron saint, Chad, perhaps isn’t as well-known as he should be, not least by local people. Chad was a person of undoubted sanctity and had an endearing personality. Born in Northumbria and a student of St Aidan on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, he was sent to Ireland to complete his education and his monastic formation. His spirituality would have contained elements of Celtic austere simplicity as well as a theology shared with the whole Latin Church of the West. The last eight years of his life are the best attested but my learned predecessor, Dean Savage, maintained that Chad worked as a mission priest in Mercia long before he became a Bishop, and this accounts for his fame as an evangelist (sharer of the good news) in the Midlands which can hardly be accounted for by his very short tenure as Bishop of Lichfield. Partly for this reason, Peter Walker’s depiction of Chad, is of a priest, in movement. Chad is dressed as if to preside at the Eucharist (Holy Communion). (To acknowledge his later status as a Bishop, Chad’s statue has an Episcopal ring). His right hand is raised in blessing and in his other hand he carries the open book of the Gospels. This is modelled on the Chad Gospels and the sculpture’s depiction of the open page will be a facsimile of the title page of St Mark and the text of its opening lines as you see them in the Chad Gospel manuscript. It’s an appropriate choice – St Mark doesn’t mince his words “The beginning of the good news (evangel) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”. As the statue will be three metres high, and set on its Hollington sandstone plinth, only the birds will be able to see the text, but we’ll take photographs and perhaps make post-cards to show Chad’s message. The statue will face Dam Street (along which the majority of our visitors approach the Cathedral) and we hope it will welcome and intrigue people. As a Diocese we also seek to follow our Bishop’s encouragement to “Come follow Christ in the footsteps of St Chad”. The statue will be a waymark for our pilgrimage, a talking and gathering point, and a constant reminder of our inheritance of faith and our communion with the Saints.
Personally, I’m delighted with Peter’s work. During his open studio sessions this summer over five hundred people have seen the statue being moulded in clay. It is now encased in a resin moulding ready to be cast in bronze. We hope to unveil the statue on St Chad’s Day 2021 (Tuesday 2 March) with as much jubilation as regulations permit. We’re also grateful to all who have generously contributed to the statue’s costs. It has all been funded by individual and grant donations and hasn’t come from Cathedral revenue or regular congregational giving.
2020 has been a difficult year, that’s the least we can say. However, Christian faith propels us out of pessimism and despair (without ever trivialising sorrow, darkness and tragedy) into the hope of Resurrection, new life emerging from death. To symbolise the arrival of the St Chad Statue, the arrival of spring, our re-birth in hope through the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, we are planting a hope garden around the statue. Around fifty thousand spring bulbs will be put in the ground in early October. If you want to contribute some muscle power and perspiration to the project, please contact Jane Hardy at the Chapter Office. Your help will be appreciated with the planting project.
The end of September also marks the high holy day of the Jewish calendar so let me end with a Jewish greeting: may the Lord preserve us in good health as we look forward to better days.
With my love, prayers and blessing.
Adrian