January 2009

The lead up to Christmas last year was inevitably coloured by the gloomy news of international economic recession. Chiming in with the general gloom of the times is some ineffably sad news I gleaned the other day from the e-mail newsletter I am sent as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Can you believe it but the latest edition of a leading children’s dictionary, published by the Oxford University Press no less, will no longer contain the words: abbey, aisle, altar, bishop and chapel, monastery, monk, nun, minister, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil and vicar; gone too are carol, cracker, holly, ivy and mistletoe, not to mention dwarf, elf and goblin. Instead, the new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary introduces children to the grey world of today’s charismatically-led Britain with the more ‘relevant’ words: database, export, curriculum, classify, tolerant, vandalism, negotiate, interdependent, committee, compulsory, bullet point, voicemail, citizenship, dyslexic and celebrity.

Leaving politics and religion aside, the list of omitted words is almost a pastoral poem in itself: gone are the colourful and evocative words of the childhood imagination: fern, moss, buttercup and marzipan, adder, heron, kingfisher, lark, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren, acorn, blackberry, bluebell, bramble, brook, chestnut, clover, conker, ivy, pasture, sycamore, vine, violet, walnut and willow. The head of children’s dictionaries at Oxford University Press is quoted as saying: “Many children once lived in semi-rural environments and saw the seasons. Nowadays, the environment has changed. We are also much more multi-cultural. People don’t go to church as often as before. Our understanding of religion is within multi-culturalism.”

When you have digested the full implications of this quote and become even more deeply depressed than you were when you read your credit card statement or projected mortgage repayment scheme, I suggest you console your self with the following thought. In my experience, children do not want to own, let alone use, a dictionary — they are worthy books that are bought by well-meaning relations only to sit upon shelves rarely opened and gaining dust while the children for whom they are intended are busy getting on with real life — or else sitting in the corner entranced by the world of J.K.Rowling or Philip Pullman in which words like elf and moss and conker tumble out from every exciting good-versus-evil page.

Thank goodness our Education Team at Norwich Cathedral introduces thousands of children every year to words they will not now be able to find in the Oxford Junior Dictionary. Thank goodness our stunning new website is unafraid to use vocabulary I have always been naïve enough to believe was basic and thank goodness it includes an on-line glossary which I now officially designate a non-politically correct, non multi-cultural supplement to all future editions of OUP’s colourless and romance-free publications.

Jeremy Haselock
 

 
The second Historic Fayre, held over the weekend of 12-14 December in the Cloister, brought some 2500 visitors to the Cathedral, despite some very challenging weather. conditions.

We were fortunate to have some excellent publicity from Anglia Television on the Saturday night which contributed unquestionably to the increased numbers on the Sunday. The quality of traders and products was again very high and favourable comments were received from the public all weekend. In addition, the entertainment of medieval musicians, fire-breathing monks, Tudor storytelling and 1940s swing in the Refectory helped create a unique atmosphere.  Look at some of the stunning photographs 

Special thanks go to the Cathedral volunteers and staff who gave up their own time to work on making the event a success and whose assistance and good humour in such cold weather was much appreciated. The Fayre has been both directly profitable and brought increased turnover through the Refectory and Shop takings.

We plan to go ahead with this event again next Christmas - hopefully even bigger and better - and the weekend of the 11 - 13th December 2009 has already been booked. Please put these dates in your diary.

Gareth Gladman

November
Collections £1,696.06
Pledged donations £4,742.00

TOTAL £6,438.06

After the rush of Christmas and the Historic Fayre, we start the New Year with a ‘civilised’ sale! This is to say that we won’t be discounting everything but there will be bargains to pick up on books, diaries, calendars, toys and gifts. Thanks to everyone who visited the Shop during the Fayre. Perhaps some of you even got the chance to sample our jams and preserves. Don’t forget that if you enjoyed the mulled wine or spiced apple juice that was available in the Cathedral and Refectory throughout the festive season, you can buy the same sachets in the Shop.

We are always looking for volunteers to help us in the Shop, so if you are outgoing, friendly and would like to be part of our happy team, please give me a call on 218323.

Anne Cox

As you may already have noticed the top left hand corner of every page on this website displays a new Cathedral logo.

As well as designing the website, The Click have used their skills and expertise to give us a new identity which will form the basis of all Cathedral publicity and marketing to ensure that we are a recognizable ‘brand’. For Norwich Cathedral the spire remains our most iconic image and we think The Click have used it in a fresh and contemporary way. The simplicity of the lettering also echoes the austere beauty and clean Norman lines of the building.

This new identity will be launched towards the end of January and introduced over the coming months. It will feature on all Cathedral stationery and leaflets but the ancient Priory Shield will continue to be used as a badge for all Cathedral staff and volunteers.

Norwich Cathedral and Norfolk County Music Service have won £35,000 of government funding for a singing project set up in conjunction with St John’s Roman Catholic Cathedral and Norwich School. The scheme has already been hugely over-subscribed and will involve some 750 young singers, from 12 primary schools, in the first year. Beverley Downes, Norfolk’s Choral Animateur, together with the Cathedral Choristers and Master of the Music, David Lowe, will visit all the schools, singing for and with the children. Music teachers will be provided with in-service vocal training and the Cathedral’s five Choral Scholars will play an important role as trainee singing leaders. The children will also visit the Cathedral to sing and have tea with the Choristers, then stay on to watch the preparations for Evensong.

The first two visits have been great fun. Once the children get used to singing into the Cathedral acoustic they seem every bit as inspired by it as those who are lucky enough to sing here every day. The Choristers enjoy showing off their skills to such a receptive audience and Messrs Dunnett and Primrose demonstrating the Cathedral organ is a great hit - especially David Dunnett's rendition of 'The Simpsons' theme tune!”

Starting in February, the plan is to form a Children’s Chorus for a concert to take place in St John’s Cathedral in June 2009. All the children on the scheme will perform in the Norfolk County Music Festival. This is Phase One of a projected three year scheme, hopefully leading to performances of an opera for children in both Cathedrals. It is a very exciting prospect, providing cross-discipline education and experience in movement, music, arts and crafts.

David Lowe

Full details of these and all other services are on the weekly Music Scheme (with the green border) on display in the Cathedral and will shortly also be available on the website. Sung services are sung by the Cathedral Choir unless otherwise indicated.

Thursday 1 January
11.00 am Organ Recital
12 noon Sung Eucharist

Sunday 4 January The Epiphany
8.00 am Holy Communion (BCP)
9.15 am Holy Communion - St Mary in the Marsh
(St Luke’s Chapel
10.30 am Sung Eucharist (sung by Norwich Cathedral Consort)
3.30 pm Evensong and Procession to the Crib

Tuesday 6 January
1.15 pm Meditation Group (St Catherine’s Chapel)

Wednesday 7 January
2.15 pm Pre-School Music Group (St Catherine’s Chapel)

Sunday 11 January Second Sunday of Epiphany
8.00 am Holy Communion (BCP)
9.15 am Family Communion
10.30 am Sung Eucharist Preacher: The Revd Lorna Allies,
Rural Adviser to the Diocese
3.30 pm Epiphany Procession with Carols

Monday 12 January
6.15 pm Contemplative Prayer (St Catherine’s Chapel)

Tuesday 13 January
1.15 pm Meditation Group (St Catherine’s Chapel)

Wednesday 14 January
2.15 pm Pre-School Music Group (St Catherine’s Chapel)

Sunday 18 January Third Sunday of Epiphany
8.00 am Holy Communion (BCP)
10.30 am Sung Eucharist
3.30 pm Evensong and Presentation of Certificates to LLMs
Preacher: Canon Steven Betts

Tuesday 20 January
1.00 pm Library Talk : Can science explain belief in God
and does it matter? The Revd Dr Patrick Richmond, Christchurch, Eaton
1.15 pm Meditation Group (St Catherine’s Chapel)

Wednesday 21 January
2.15 pm Pre-School Music Group

Saturday 24 January
3.30 pm Evensong
(sung by visiting choir - Magdalen College, Cambridge)

Sunday 25 January Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
8.00 am Holy Communion (BCP)
10.30 am Sung Eucharist
3.30 pm Evensong and farewell service for the Archdeacon
of Lynn Preacher: The Ven Martin Gray

Monday 26 January
6.15 pm Contemplative Prayer (St Catherine’s Chapel)

Tuesday 27 January
1.15 pm Meditation Group (St Catherine ‘s Chapel)

Wednesday 28 January
2.15 pm Pre-School Music Group (St Catherine’s Chapel)

Saturday 31 January
3.30 pm Evensong
(sung by visiting choir - Christchurch, Eaton)

The annual service will be held at 11.00 am on Tuesday 27 January at St Peter Mancroft Church. Please arrive by 10.45 am in order to be seated for the start of the service which will last approximately 40 minutes. All welcome.

Audrey Talks

The Fursey Pilgims invite you to share in their annual celebration of the Feast of Fursey. It will take place on Saturday 17 January at St Matthew's Church, Thorpe Hamlet, Norwich, commencing with a Celtic-themed service at 2.30 pm. We are continuing to look at the early Christian scene in East Anglia, and have invited Dr Richard Hoggett (NAU Archaeology) to give the Fursey Lecture under the title "Botolph and Beyond: the Archaeology of the East Anglian Missions". Cost £4. Further information from 01603 402797.

Information about St Fursey is now available on the new Cathedral website.

David Abraham
 

On Friday 6 March over 3 million people worldwide will take part in the Day of Prayer Service prepared by Christian women of Papua New Guinea on the theme “In Christ there are many members yet one body”. Three study days will be held prior to the Service. Mrs Win Sutton will talk about and show slides of Papua New Guinea on Tuesday 27 January. The Revd Sharon Willimott, Vicar of Thorpe LEP, will lead two Bible studies based on the theme of the Service. These will be on Tuesday 3 and Tuesday 10 February. Each meeting will take place at Trinity United Reformed Church, Unthank Road from 2.00 - 4.00 pm. All will be welcome.

Anne Harris
 

The CCC Chairman and Chairman of the Alms Committee, Janet Anderson, met the Canon Pastor to discuss various aspects of the allocation, distribution and promulgation of the funds made to and by the Alms Committee. It had already been agreed that, in future, an annual Alms budget will be decided by the Chapter early each year and the Alms Committee will convene twice during the following 12 months to allocate this sum to deserving Church, overseas and local organisations.

As we enter a new year, it is time to review the Cathedral Roll and, whilst members of the Community are encouraged to include themselves on the Roll at any time, it is especially important to see that this is done prior to the Annual Meeting in May. In order to maintain the Roll, it is also sadly necessary to delete the names of those who have passed away or moved from Norwich. Paul Minchin has a copy of the Roll and a supply of enrolment forms, so please contact him or the Cathedral office at No 12 for further information or to make any amendments to an existing entry.

It is also now possible to enrol online.  The new website has a section dedicated to the Cathedral Community.

The next meeting of the CCC will be held in the Prior’s Hall on Tuesday 13 January at 7.30 pm.

Michael Sargisson

The next joint meeting is on Monday 16 February at 7.00 pm in the Prior’s Hall, when we will be studying the fourth session on 'The Church' entitled 'The body of Christ'. All are welcome at this meeting.

Gill Warren

This is a new charity, chaired by Canon Jeremy Haselock, and established to use St Peter Hungate Church in Norwich as a centre for celebrating the remarkable medieval artefacts to be found in Norfolk’s churches. At first it will concentrate on the stained glass, of which a considerable amount has survived in scores of places, albeit in small quantities. Some of the best is in Hungate itself. The project was conceived in late 2007 by local residents Kate Weaver, Paul Binski and Anthony Barnes. There will be lightboxes illustrating Norfolk glass and describing how stained glass is made; panels interpreting the glass in the church and ‘sideshows’ to interest children, as well as a series of trails taking in glass all over the county. The exhibition will be curated by Claire Daunton, the tireless chronicler of Norfolk’s medieval glass and author of the chapter on the Cathedral’s glass in the 900th anniversary book. Generous support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, the waste collecting firms Biffa and WREN and other sources should enable an April start. A Centre Manager is to be appointed to make links with schools and other institutions as well as to be custodian.

St Peter Hungate was largely rebuilt by the Paston family in the fifteenth century and has been little altered since. It was the first editor of the Paston Letters, supported by Prince Frederic Duleep Singh of Elvedon, who caused the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings to save the church from dereliction and probable demolition just over a hundred years ago. St Peter’s was for nearly seventy years a museum of ecclesiastical art, the first church in England to be adapted in this way. Many who regretted the closure of the museum will be pleased that the church is to be re-opened for a similar purpose.

Jeremy Haselock

This year the Norwich Central Churches Together Lent Study Group will offer one of the York courses entitled “These three … faith, hope and love”, with five sessions: Believing and Trusting; The Peace of God; Faith into Love; The Greatest of These; All Shall be Well. There is a choice of study groups, meeting afternoons and evenings on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays., beginning the first week of March. For further details of times and venues, contact Canon Richard Capper.

The 2009 Lent Lectures at the Cathedral will be given by the Bishop of East Anglia, the Rt Revd Michael Evans and the Holy Week addresses by Prof Hugh Williamson, Regius Professor of Hebrew, Christ Church, Oxford.

From 8 to 15 October 2009 there will be an opportunity to join a week’s retreat at Assisi - organised by Pax Travel and led by the Revd Peter Varney and Frances Crampton.

For further information, contact Peter Varney: 1 Thomas Wyatt Close, Norwich, NR2 2TB, UK or email: varney@waitrose.com.
 

The Preschool Music Group meets on Wednesdays in termtime in St Catherine's Chapel, (just inside the South Door of the Cathedral) starting again on Wednesday 7 January at 2.15 pm
Groups will last for 30 minutes

Cost £3.00 per family with all proceeds going towards Community Learning

ALL WELCOME
For further information, please contact:
Margaret Riches (01508 570129) or Jill Napier (01603 218321
 

WEEK BEGINNING
04 January Canon Capper 01603 665210
11 January Canon Capper 01603 665210
18 January Canon McFadyen 01603 621570
25 January Canon Haselock 01603 218314

Please send items for the February newsletter to Angela Stevenson, PA to the Dean, (preferably by e-mail to astevenson@cathedral.org.uk) or post to 12 The Close, Norwich, NR1 4DH by 9am on Weds 14 January.