Today Liverpool Cathedral is celebrating Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of the infant Christ in the Temple. The celebration has its roots in Luke’s birth narratives when Mary and Joseph take the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem for the ceremony of the purification of the mother forty days after the birth. In the Temple the Holy Spirit inspires two special, elderly, and holy people to prophesy about the infant Jesus’ future. It is here in the Temple that Simeon speaks of Jesus as a light bringing God’s salvation to the Gentiles as well as to the Jewish people. Simeon’s prophecy was expressed in the canticle known as the Nunc dimittis My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel For those of you who wanted to do some thinking and preparation for today’s service during the preceding week, I invited you to reflect on the image of lights in order to enrich and to deepen the power of Simeon’s prophetic insight into God’s plans for Jesus. In today’s picture from their book Light, Aled and Sian are discovering how the single light bulb in their attic enables them to see the many things stored there. To read the book, Light, please follow this link to the story on the St. Mary’s Centre website: http://www.st-marys-centre.org.uk/resources/Exploring%20Why%20Series/Light/Light%20Short%202016%20WEB.pdf. For more adventures with Aled and Sian, follow this link to the Exploring Why page under the Resources tab of the St. Mary’s Centre website: http://www.st-marys-centre.org.uk/resources/Exploring%20Why.html. Next Sunday, the season of Epiphany draws to a close with Transfiguration Sunday. It is here on the Mount of Transfiguration that the divine revelation clothes Jesus with robes of pure and dazzling white. The image to help us prepare for that reading is wearing white. You can find out more about that theme here https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. We would really appreciate you letting us know how you are using these materials. Please send us your ideas and photos of the things you may create; email them to Nelson.Pike@liverpoolcathedral.org.uk. We warmly invite you to join us in worship online here: Aled and Sian send their Sunday greetings to all. Canon Leslie
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On Sunday 7th February, at Evensong, I will be collated and installed as the Cathedral’s new Canon Precentor. On the latest count there will be 15 people present, including members of the Chapter, choral scholars, the Bishop of Liverpool, and my parents, in the Presbytery. And so, in the strange and straightened ways that our times demand, I will join the Cathedral Company, and the succession of worshippers who have gathered to offer praises to God on St James’ Mount over the last century. Please keep me, and the ministry that lies ahead, in your prayers. As you may know I am not a stranger to the Cathedral, or the city. For the last few years I have been a canon by virtue of my office as Area Dean of Wigan, where I have served as a parish priest since 2012. And I was ordained by Bishop James in this exceptional sacred space. Over the last number of years a group of us in the season of Pentecost walked, in the course of a day, from Billinge Hill, in Wigan Deanery, to the Cathedral, on pilgrimage. It is a truly magnetic place, filled with the presence of God. For those of us who have grown up in Liverpool since the cathedral was completed other cathedrals might be older, but there’s often the sense that they’re just, well, a bit small. The building Scott left us is a marvel, and the musical and liturgical tradition inhabiting it is rich and vibrant. I have often arranged my diary, and sometimes the parish’s, to be able to be part of the throng at ‘From Darkness to Light’, looking to the future, in God’s hands, with all the hope encapsulated in what is my favourite hymn, ‘Lo, He comes with clouds descending’. The mystery of God, inhabiting us through the Spirit, is more wonderful still, and it will be an enormous joy to work with you in lifting high the name of Christ in our city and region, as the great tower does, pointing to the Kingdom coming in our midst, even now, in these dark days. I look forward to getting to know you, and hope you’ll understand that this might take a little longer than normal, under lockdown. It is a great comfort, however, to know that just round the corner my beloved predecessor will be at hand with the wisdom that he demonstrated twenty years ago, as Diocesan Director of Ordinands, when he recommended that I should be ordained! Yours ever, Canon Philip While you're here: Why not prepare for next Sunday's worship? Our preparation sheet for adults and for children can be accessed by clicking on the Resources tab of this website: https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. Stipendary clergy in the Diocese of Liverpool can apply for ‘Study Leave’ every seven years. This allows for an individual to be released from their usual ministry to spend some time following up a particular interest or researching a topic in some detail. I have never taken such time out in all of my ministry so a few years ago (when the world was somewhat different) I was granted a ‘Sabbatical’ beginning on March 1st. this year. Although inevitably it will be somewhat different to what I had hoped I shall be absent from the Cathedral from March until the beginning of July. As you may know the Diocese of Liverpool came into being when, in Parliament the New Bishopric Act was approved on the 16th August 1878, and Bishop Ryle was then consecrated the first Bishop on 1880. As I was ordained in 1978 I have been around for over 40 of those 140 years and I intend to write a personal social history of what it has been like to be part of a changing and developing Diocese since my ordination. Although as you can see I have kept my appointments diaries, much of what I will be relying on is memory and impression. By way of introduction, a friend took me to Bishop’s Lodge for an evening meeting for potential ordinands in the mid 1970s when Stuart Blanch was Bishop of Liverpool and John Bickersteth Bishop of Warrington. It was the first time I had entered the residence of the Bishop and I spent most of the evening in the toilet being violently sick! Perhaps I should have taken the hint but even now I look upon that particular room with some dread. Other horror moments include completely forgetting to meet Bishop John Robinson, the then best- selling author of ‘Honest to God’ off his train at Lime Street station as he was arriving to give a Lent lecture at Liverpool Parish Church; being pinned to a wall by a previous Bishop of Liverpool whose anger apparently knew no bounds, and completely covering the crew of a Mersey Dredger with human remains as I attempted to scatter ashes at sea. And then there have been the meetings – oh the endless meetings! As well as these and other personal anecdotes is the whole concept of how the Church has changed during these years. The role of women is perhaps the most welcome and dramatic. I doubt that in 1978 many would have predicted that we would benefit from the ministry of a female Bishop of Warrington or Dean of Liverpool. I proudly had a small hand in the appointment of both! So I am signing off for a few months but will return soon Canon Bob While you're here: Why not prepare for next Sunday's worship? Our preparation sheet for adults and for children can be accessed by clicking on the Resources tab of this website: https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. |
supporting you during these uncertain times AuthorLiverpool Cathedral is a place of encounter. Built by the people, for the people, to the Glory of God Archives
September 2022
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Prayer for Liverpool
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Liverpool Cathedral is a place of encounter.
Built by the people, for the people, to the Glory of God www.liverpoolcathedral.org.uk |