A message from the Dean - 5 February
Dear Friends,
I was asked to write the following piece for a daily newspaper. Whether it gets printed, or it is mangled into something unrecognisable by sub-editors, is beyond my control, but I thought you might like to see the article. Here it is:
Last week the UK death toll from Covid-19 crossed the 100,000 mark: a grim milestone in our reckoning with the impact of the virus. The swathe of bereavement the virus brings is terrible. The mental and spiritual desolation of 2020 has shown us the fault lines in the way the world is currently ordered: pointing us to the inescapable truth of our relatedness and obligations to each other. One charity dealing with bereavement has predicted a “tsunami of unresolved grief” that will take a long time to heal. Compound the death rate with the anxiety, stress and isolation lockdown and home-schooling have brought, to say nothing of lost jobs, business closures and a contracting economy, then we are right to welcome the NHS’s vaccination roll-out.
When I heard last autumn that effective vaccines were on the horizon I felt as if a great gloomy fog was about to lift. It’s been a tough time for all faith communities: only being able to worship and meet for pastoral activity on-line has had some creative responses, but the big problem has been to allow physical access and in-person prayer and worship as the virus peaked in new and unpredictable ways. Saving lives and upholding the vulnerable has been the shared first priority of the whole Church and with that the maintenance of our offering of prayer and sacramental worship. English Cathedrals have been undeviating in upholding those obligations. We have opened when it has been safe to do so and closed, when advised, it is not; using technology, with increasing confidence, as the crisis has developed.
Yet a crisis in terms of Christian spirituality is also a call to deeper conversion to God’s will: a soul searching to co-operate more with God’s purpose, an eager discernment of signs of hope, a fresh engagement with the Gospel story as we have prayed every day, morning and evening, for the world in the grip of a deadly pandemic. Whilst public worship posed risks, a well-organised, speedy and efficient delivery of the vaccine could enable sacred space to be of service even when its primary uses had to be curtailed.
It seemed to us here at Lichfield (and our friends and colleagues at Blackburn and Salisbury) that offering our Cathedrals as places that could boost the roll-out and take-up of the vaccine would be a good thing to do for our communities. The clinics gave us an opportunity to be a sign that human beings aren’t divisible into physical and spiritual. Human beings are a psycho-somatic unity. What heals the body also heals the mind and spirit. The very first acts of Jesus’s public ministry were healings. Human need was answered by overwhelming compassion.
For sure, every time a Cathedral does something other than choral evensong, cultured and cultivated voices cry “Betrayal” or argue we are selling out to secularism. It has to be admitted that most forms of human religion put and police a boundary between sacred and profane: walls, screens, customs and codes make them apparent. Christians, however, have to recognise the paradox of Jesus Christ himself. God and the stuff of creation meet in this person. Much of his ministry was to demonstrate the devastating consequences of sealing off God from the sheer mess, pain and brokenness of human life. His truth is that human living is held and understood by God and God’s love, beauty and presence are not confined to sacred texts or sacred buildings: these only serve to illuminate the way God is to be experienced in mercy, right acts, healing and forgiveness. Christ’s incarnation is the bridge between what we call secular and sacred. The Church finds itself being most authentic when it not only proclaims but becomes a channel for God’s grace to touch the world. That can be as practical as giving clean water through a functioning village pump in Africa, to offering mediation to quarrelling partners, to being a place for preventing the spread of disease and it can be as sublime as a human heart overwhelmed by goodness, truth and beauty.
Pope Francis has had profound things to say to the whole world during this current pandemic. He sees the crisis as an opportunity to reorient our values and our way of life and for the Church to renew itself in service. “Our greatest power is not in the respect that others have for us, but the service we can offer others”. (Let us Dream: The Path to a Better Future, 2020).
As a post-script to that article, I’d like to pay tribute to all our staff and volunteers who have enabled the clinics to take place. Operationally, we have been able to get people through quickly and efficiently (apart from the first day when far too many were invited by the GP practices and there were queues and, boy, didn’t we take it in the neck!) We have had great support from Cadent, the energy company, who not only provided the marquee on the West Front for sheltering waiting patients, but also provided us with some very cheerful and capable staff to help assist and control parking in the Close. Our volunteers have provided a warm welcome; they assisted the medical staff to get people in and out of the building and they have been able to answer questions and give assurance. Great teamwork from everyone! No wonder we won The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2019 – we have lived up to our own high standards and reputation.
The clinics will continue for another few weeks. Much depends on the supply of the vaccine and which type is being used. The national roll-out of the vaccine programme has been swift and efficient; our contribution to that might therefore come to an end relatively quickly as priority cases and categories get vaccinated ahead of time.
Permit me also a few remarks about what lies ahead -
We were to have unveiled our splendid new statue of St Chad just two days before the Saint’s festival (2 March). However, because of lockdown the foundry where the sculpture is being cast has had to close. We are therefore rescheduling the unveiling, dedication and blessing of the statue to Saturday 26 June. It’s the Ordination weekend when we welcome many parishes from across the Diocese who will be coming to support new Deacons (and to suss out what kind of gift they are about to receive). We hope 26 June can be a great occasion when we celebrate our common purpose “Come follow Christ in the footsteps of St Chad”. But as we prepare to mark the 1350th anniversary of St Chad’s death in 2022 we hope to begin, later this year, a programme of study, events and patterns of pilgrimage and ecumenical exchange.
Lent begins on Wednesday 16 February (Ash Wednesday). After much discussion, and with careful and thorough preparation, the Cathedral will reopen for worship that day at 12.30 and 19.30. It is a Holy Day of Obligation, that is, all members of the Church, who are able, are obliged to receive Holy Communion that day. From Ash Wednesday onwards the Cathedral will reopen each Sunday for the 10.30 Eucharist. Of course, all services will be streamed for on-line viewing.
I hope this gradual and partial reopening will be helpful to us all. It will be done on the basis of careful, social-distancing, mask-wearing and hand sanitisation. Throughout February we will, naturally, be taking part in the wave of prayer for our nation, called by our Archbishops, just as we did last November during the second lockdown.
Many people have told me how wearisome, depressing and boring this current period of lockdown has been for them. Me too! Time to notice good things happening around us: there’s more daylight, and despite the gloom, there are signs that the world is doing a serious stock-take of the state we’re in and how we build back better, fairer and sustainably.
With my love, prayers and blessings
Adrian Dorber
Dean of Lichfield