​I cannot believe it is Thursday once again - the week seems to have flown. Yesterday morning I did my usual walk to the supermarket to get my weekly shop. I go around 7am and I walk so that I get my daily exercise. As I walked I was reflecting on what I would say in this blog. As you can see from my pictures I began to think about those who supply our daily needs. The pharmacy, the supermarket, the delivery drivers, the bin men and the transport workers - all people who have continued to supply our daily needs.

So often in the past we have taken these people for granted -  well I know I have, but these are key workers who keep us fed and safe. As we continue to journey through COVID 19, I keep asking myself where is God in all of this suffering and hurt? Like many before us who have faced pandemics and untold sufferings, I have no answer as to why God allows this to happen. But I do know that I see God at work in the generosity of those who come and stack our supermarket shelves, who deliver food to restock these shelves, who bring people to work on the buses and who continue to deliver our post and clear away our waste. There God is at work as all these key workers generously smile and offer help. There God is at work where they risk themselves and their families’ safety to serve us.

We offer them our gratitude and thanks just as we offer our gratitude and thanks the NHS staff. So on this Thank you Thursday we thank God for the hands that serve, and for the hands that heal.

Dean Sue 

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.

Over the years we have had some reunions but Ronnie had decided that the time was right to produce this book capturing photographs and memories.
So I have been transported back to a time when I was 19 years old and for 5 weeks lived with 7 others as we travelled some 5.000 miles. It took 2 weeks to get to Israel, visiting on the way Rome, Pompeii, Corinth, Thessalonica, Philippi, Istanbul and Ephesus. We then had a week visiting all the sights in the Holy Land camping first by Lake Galilee and then outside Jerusalem. (In case you are interested I am the one in the photo in the blue shirt with hand on hip!) Our journey home took in the Acropolis and Mars Hill in Athens, a sail along the Corinth Canal and a brief visit to Venice.

As you can imagine the whole experience was the very opposite of Social Isolation and was a real lesson in how to live as part of a small community. This was combined with visiting places of great holiness.

At the moment we are denied much of what living in community involves, although keeping in touch with each other is, thankfully possible, and extremely valuable. Being grounded we are also unable to visit places of personal significance.

My hope is that when we can resume whatever normality may look like, this period of time will give us a sense of value for the most important things in life.

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.

‘Don’t point the camera at the lights!’ During ordination training in Salisbury nearly fifty years ago, we boasted about being the first theological college to have our very own television studio. At the time this was seen as cutting edge. My memory is that it was only really used for recording our first faltering attempts at preaching. A group of students would listen to us in turn, followed by the embarrassment of having to watch our recorded efforts. The group would then offer helpful (or occasionally unhelpful) criticism. When it came to practical matters, the instruction not to point the camera at the lights is all that I can now remember.
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In the intervening years, I have not been aware of any skills lying magnificently dormant in this direction. As precentor at Liverpool Cathedral, I have often relished the opportunity to use the largest space for worship in the Anglican Communion. With the Cathedral building no longer available for us, the challenge has been to use the somewhat smaller spaces of our houses to create worship which may help us all to connect with each other and with God.

As the weeks go by, we are becoming more adventurous. Canon Neal’s sermon last Sunday, drawing on Luke’s story of the Road to Emmaus, found him moving through St James’s Gardens as he spoke to us.  Mehdi from the Sepas congregation read to us in Farsi. The choristers led prayers with many of them appearing to pay tribute to NHS and front line workers. Music has included recordings made over the years by the Cathedral choir and the grand organ, and we have been treated to some of the spectacular views inside and outside the building. If you have not yet shared the celebration of the Eucharist for last Sunday, 26th April, may I warmly encourage you to do so.

As a parish priest, I used to preside at an early celebration of the Eucharist each Thursday, sometimes attended by just one or two. When filling in the service register afterwards, in the attendance column, I was often tempted to write ‘2  + the whole company of heaven!’ It feels strange, and it is exceptional, for the President to celebrate the sacrament alone, yet this is a dimension of worship in which many are playing a part, some seen or spoken, while others are using their technical skills behind the scenes. In this time of social distance, such an act of worship is there for us all, and it helps us to prepare for when we may meet again around the Lord’s table, with all who stand before God, in earth and heaven.

Canon Myles

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.

Unlike many of the cathedral clergy, my home is not beside the cathedral.  Instead I own a small house on the boundary between Kensington and Fairfield.  Ideally placed for me to walk into the uni – when one is allowed to and when, truth be told, I’m not feeling lazy!  I am blessed that within these lockdown weeks, my daily constitutional walk can be around the beautiful Newsham Park – indeed it was one of the reasons which attracted me to living in this area. I do feel very fortunate, though, when I consider those people who don’t have such facilities around them in the present time – particularly those in inner city regions, families living in apartment blocks etc.  I keep them very much in mind and prayer – how it must be when one has no green space nearby in these difficult times.
 
Yesterday’s gospel was taken from St Luke (Luke 24:13-35), and records the encounter for two of the disciples on Easter day on the Emmaus Road.  It was beautifully and imaginatively unpacked and reflected upon by Canon Leslie and Canon Neal yesterday; and it made me think we are all on some sort of journey – in our day-to-day living, but especially now, even though our main feelings are ones of stasis, seemingly not going anywhere.  But we need to allow Jesus to open our eyes to see the journey we are on and the opportunities it might bring post-lockdown…in the changes to our lives and how we live them; in the changes in attitude to things that we consider of worth, rather than just things to accumulate and have; the things we really miss when we don’t have the freedoms we all take for granted – like being in touch with loved ones, seeing them, being with them.
 
Our present journey as a cathedral church means we can creatively keep everyone in our hearts, thoughts and prayers, more than usual.  All of us are on a new Emmaus road, a journey looking forward to being open to all and worshiping together once more.  But, as my postman engaged me in conversation on Friday, perhaps we might allow Jesus to open our eyes in this period to new ways of loving neighbour once the lockdown is over.  It is proof itself that even on this unknown road, where we don’t know where the journey will lead us, God's love is still at work through the people around us, in the every day, and He will bring us to a safe earthly destination where lives are hopefully changed permanently for good in helping one another.
 
The creative power of the love of God can open our eyes to all these new opportunities to be Christian, to be Christ in the world at large – during this journey this day, may our prayers be to allow God to do so for each of us….in Jesus’ name.
 
With my love and prayers for you all; stay safe….
 
Canon Mike 
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​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.

​I appreciated the Dean’s invitation to write the Sunday blog this week. In a strange kind of way, for years my life has been shaped by the rhythm of Sunday worship. Each Sunday is the same, and yet each Sunday is different. Each Sunday is the same because there at the centre is the same Eucharistic structure and the same foundation narrative. Each Sunday takes us to the table where Jesus presides with bread and with wine. Each Sunday is different from the one before and from the one after in two ways. We travel through the liturgical year from Advent to Christmas, from Lent to Easter, from Pentecost to Christ the King. We encounter the Gospel set for the day and we are invited to take that Gospel to heart.
 
Some may see that Gospel set for the day as the springboard for thought during the coming week. Others, like me, may see that Gospel set for the day as the culmination of preparation invested throughout the previous week. During this uncomfortable period of COVID-19 lockdown, I have been inviting those who visit the prayerforliverpool.org website to join me in preparing for the Sunday Gospel at home, so that when we share in the Sunday service online we have already prepared for engaging with the distinctive Gospel theme. I have shaped this preparation through identifying a core image at the heart of the Gospel theme.
 
Today, the Third Sunday of Easter, I have offered the image of Sharing Bread as a lens through which to view the narrative of the journey to Emmaus. I have invited you to prepare the space in which you will engage with today’s service by placing there images of bread. I have invited you to prepare your minds, hearts, and souls by thinking seriously about Luke 24: 13-25. Here at the cathedral we would be interested to know if you have been willing to engage in this process and how you have experienced it.
 
Next week I am offering the image of Sheep as a lens through which to view the ideas in John 10: 1-10 about the Good Shepherd. I invite you to engage with these materials in readiness for next Sunday, and during the week to share your ideas and photos of your creativity with us by emailing them to [email protected].
 
You will find our Sunday service video here: 

​​If you’d like to follow along with Canon Neal’s sermon, the text is here, in both English and Farsi: 

​We invite your further participation today by engaging with the Breakfast and the Bible notes here: 

​To access the “Exploring the Sunday Gospel at Home” documents, go to the “Prayer Resources” page of this blog and look under the “Worship” column: https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. You will also find Children’s activities from the Cathedral Education Team on under the “Education” column on the same page. The documents for next week are now available, so that you can begin preparing for next Sunday early in the week.
 
The picture above is taken from the book, Exploring Why: Bread, a part of the Exploring Why series of books for 3 to 7 year olds. You can find the whole book and the entire series of Exploring Why books on the St. Mary’s Centre website, http://www.st-marys-centre.org.uk/resources/Exploring%20Why.html.
 
Canon Leslie
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How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
    All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
Psalm 37.7
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Mark and I take our dogs Holly and Jacob out for a walk every day. We walk around the cathedral (very slowly – they are old dogs, I have a dodgy back and Mark is recovering from his cancer treatment). The dogs have to read all their ‘wee-mails’ and it seems we stop at every lamp-post, corner and piece of grass. But, it is a highlight of our day.

Along the way we often knock on the doors of our neighbours and say hello. Stepping back quickly once the door is answered and standing on the other side of the path but nevertheless chatting, sharing small excitements of the day and sometimes consoling each other over the challenges. Joan Walters always has a great story to tell (and a puzzle to swop) and we often chat to her along the way, we also see the Padfield family (Jude is Vicar at St James in the City) and their children are a bundle of fun. Our dogs usually have a bark at Lee and Daniel’s dogs and sometimes Pauline Lewis pops her head out the Lewis living room window to say hello. Then we visit Nelson Pike at Tsedaqah House. This is Holly and Jacob’s favourite person to knock on. Jacob is particularly pleased to see Nelson – even if it is from across the path. Jacob also loves seeing Martin who drives the Micah van – Martin is like the dog whisperer.

Then there are the other neighbours, too many to mention by name: cathedral clergy, lay people and families on the close, older neighbours supported by those immediately beside them, Community Spirit (who have had to stop working in the house but come to tend the garden), and those who have become friends through their connections with us as neighbours. As we walk our dogs we often stop and stand (at a distance) and chat.

But, as we come back toward the house we usually stop and sit on the bench that is opposite the tower and just sit and chat and think and pray. That incredible tower reaching up into the sky is silent (we miss the bells ringing!) but it is so beautiful. The powerful calm of the enormity of the presence of the structure and the way the sides encircle the space. It reminds me of the wings of a bird of prey and eagle in flight but also of the way a bird gathers it’s young and tends its eggs – gently, hopefully, nurturing. This is a beautiful place to sit at the end of a walk and I am grateful for it. 

So, my prayers this week have been around allowing myself to be gathered and nurtured by God. Cared for like a mother bird cares for her young: tenderly cherished and encouraged, fed and joyfully enabled. As I sit on that bench my prayers are that it is possible for us all to feel that sense of peace and love in the gracious arms of our God who cares for us.   

Canon Ellen
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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.
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I have to be honest and confess that ‘fitness training’ has never been high on my list of priorities. Actually, let’s be honest, I’ve never done a work-out at a gym in my life – well, not since school anyway. (In case you are wondering, that was quite a long time ago!). So imagine my trepidation when I received a serious invitation to an on-line ‘cardio workout’ ‘Body Combat’ class. More of that in a moment.
 
As a young adult, I never seemed to have to worry too much about fitness. I was as thin as the proverbial rake and could burn off the calories from a body that had a ‘high metabolic rate’. I think that was a euphemism for the fact that I sweated a lot! I played badminton quite a bit, which helped. I did a bit of cycle-touring. I enjoyed hill-walking when I could. I would bound up stairs at work, two or even three at a time. And I could climb with relative ease up vertical ladders on chemical plants and oil refineries. Middle age, a rather sedantary job, and the waining of the metabolic rate all seem to have conspired to produce what I suppose is known as ‘middle-age spread’. In my previous job, my Vicarage was about two miles from the church, so I cycled in and out six days a week, come rain or shine, and got a bit of exercise most days. The old ‘ticker’ was at least made to race a bit a couple of times a day. For a while we had a dog, so I’d take a brisk walk with him for an hour most days. But he died quite a few years ago, and changed circumstances meant we haven’t taken on another one.
 
Arriving at the Cathedral however, where I live next to ‘the shop’ means that I can practically roll out of bed and into the workplace – well, in ‘normal’ times, of course. So one good by-product of the current lockdown has been that I’ve disciplined myself to take a brisk 45 minutes walk first thing most mornings. I didn’t ask it to, but my mobile phone decided to activate a step-counter, and I find myself referring to this periodically through the day to see how I’m getting on. Making it to 10000 steps is a bit of a challenge at the moment, but I’ve done it on a few days. I even topped 13000 last week.
 
I am determined to do something about my fitness, however. As a thirty-something newly-ordained Curate I recall attending my first Clergy conference and being struck by the large number of rather corpulent male clergy in their 50s and 60s waddling around. I vowed that I did not want to join their ranks in due course. As I now move inexorably towards my late 50s I need to deliver on that vow!
 
I do also know that the Bible encourages us to keep fit. St. Paul talked of the body as a ‘Temple of the Holy Spirit’ (1 Corinthians 6:19) so that what we do with it physically is important. Corinth in the time of St. Paul, in the first Century AD, was the venue for the Isthmian Games, second only to the Olympic Games in the ancient world. So Paul would have seen the athletes training and preparing themselves for the track or stadium. He used this as a metaphor for encouraging those who seek to follow Christ in their daily lives: “Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.  Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:24-27). Righto! Youch. I’m not too keen on the sound of ‘punishing’ and ‘enslaving’ my body! When Paul wrote to Timothy, a young church leader, he said ‘physical training is of some value’ (1 Tim. 4:8). ‘Some value’ – of course he was pointing out that spiritual training was even more important. Yet, we clearly must not discount the physical stuff either, especially as we are being made all the more aware that good physical and mental health are often connected.
 
I know that, during this lockdown, many people are taking the opportunity to do some fitness training at home. A certain instructor called Joe has become quite a celebrity and popular with people of all ages. I can see the appeal, especially if you can do it in the privacy of your home, without having to parade yourself on the ‘catwalk’ of the local gym. I don’t think anyone wants to see me in lycra at 7.45am in the morning (or any other time for that matter). The invitation I’ve had is not from Joe, however, but from my younger daughter Rachel, who is living with us through the lockdown, as her acting work in London has come to a grinding halt. One other string to her bow is that she is a qualified fitness instructor. So it’s very hard to say ‘No’ to one’s offspring isn’t it? As it is, she can beat me at arm-wrestling so, being a typcial ego-tistical bloke, I know I need to do something about my upper-body strength in order to try and beat her on a re-match.
 
So I will go for it later today for the first time by joining one of her weekly classes. If I put my back out, who do I blame? Perhaps some of you would like to join me? It’s all on Zoom – you could always make contact with me at [email protected] and I’ll pass on your enquiry. If that’s not your thing or not appropriate, nevertheless it is a good idea to be thinking during this lockdown how we can improve our physical fitness and develop some helpful habits that might last well beyond the current crisis.
 
‘Temples of the Holy Spirit’, remember!

Canon Neal

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.

It is now a week since we clapped on our doorsteps for all on the front line. Thursdays have become known to me as ‘Thank you Thursday.’ Today is the day when we give thanks for the front line workers, the NHS, the social care workers and all those who supply our basic needs.
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When I undertook my regular walk around St James’ Garden, the other day, I came across the flowers in the picture, which I think are call ‘Forget-me-nots.’ As I reflected upon them I was thinking of all those whose lives have influenced me for the good and I no longer see because they have died. It is so important to remember our loved ones and the many people who give sacrificially to others.

Today, in the life of the Church and in the life of this country we remember the life and witness of St George, Patron Saint of England. St George is from the second century. He was a soldier and he was martyred for his faith. There are a number of myths around him being a knight and slaying a dragon, but the reason he became a saint was because of his great virtue and his great holiness. England adopted him as their patron saint, even though he was not born in England, along with Venice, Genoa, Portugal and Catalonia. So as we give thanks let us remember the life and witness of St George, let us pray for all affected by Covid 19 whether in this country or in Venice, Genoa, Portugal or Catalonia. And let us say THANK YOU to the St George’s of our own day. And as we say thank you may we like those flowers never forget the sacrifice of others.
 
Dean Sue

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.

Well I guess we are all coming to terms with a Social Media Easter!
Over the last few weeks Facebook and YouTube have made very interesting viewing.

Over the years I have detected something of a division over how churches approach and then celebrate Easter. There are those who could not wait for the festival – almost literally! Bunnies, eggs, and other confectionary appear on the agenda on the Saturday before Easter and brightly coloured notices advertise ‘Easter Services’ even though most of them take place during Holy Week!

On the other hand there are those who wallow in the soul searching, inward looking, self- flagellating sheer misery of Holy Week and for whom Easter Day becomes something of an inconvenient intrusion of happiness.

And yet perhaps this of all years might give us an insight into how you or I would have coped if we had been with the disciples that first Eastertide. It was hardly a hotbed of faith that Jesus invaded when he bypassed the locked door and found them self- isolating because of their fear.

No wonder his first words were the traditional Jewish greeting of peace, or that they didn’t perk up until he had shown them his hands and his side. Then we are told they rejoiced, although even after other resurrection appearances, St Luke tells us the disciples were ‘disbelieving’ in their joy.

This year in our church buildings there has been no ringing of bells or exchanging hugs of joy. It has been much more like the first Easter when it took a long time for the message to sink in.

It is enlightening I think to look at the words the various Gospel writers use to describe the feelings and actions of those first witnesses. They include – perplexity, terror, hiding their faces with fear, weeping, shaking, not understanding, alarm, disbelief, going home alone, amazement.

The fear and confusion has driven them behind locked doors which is where many of us now are.

I saw a documentary once about ‘locked in’ syndrome whereby people get locked into a body which cannot move even though their minds may be active. My experience of grief is that it can take away energy and motivation and result in a kind of lethargy and heaviness of heart that can entrap us. And the disciples have got themselves literally ‘locked in.’

Even that first appearance of Jesus doesn’t appear to have freed them as here we are a week later and those doors are still firmly locked and they certainly haven’t been able to convince Thomas.

What I warm to about Thomas is that even if he doesn’t have the assurance for himself about Jesus being risen, he stays around people who do, and they stick with him.

Some find it overwhelmingly tempting that, when a friend expresses genuine and heartfelt doubts, they rush in with reassurance rather than let doubt run its necessary course with the resulting possibility of an opening up in greater depth to God’s presence.

After all, just because Thomas hasn’t seen Jesus didn’t mean that Jesus wasn’t risen; it was just that Thomas hadn’t seen him yet. And if at times we doubt that God is with us and doesn’t respond to our prayers as we would wish – doesn’t mean that God isn’t there, it is just that we are not aware of His presence.

And of course there are no easy answers and I would much rather be part of a Christian community that admits to times when they are clinging on to faith by their fingertips rather that one who believes that they have arrived and possess the formula to the mind of God.

My experience is that it is when we are at our lowest and most vulnerable and prone to doubt that seeds of hope are sown.

And again bearing in mind our present circumstances, for many the turning point is the trauma of bereavement when, like the disciples at the crucifixion and faced with an empty tomb, life is turned horrifically upside down.

Once during a Lent course I asked those present how they came to faith. It was enlightening that a third of those present said it was through the Church’s presence with them during bereavement whether through a death, the loss of a job, or divorce. The way the church community had reacted to their pain and bewilderment had the effect of them want to belong.

The temptation is to read the stories of the resurrection and to consign them to history. But the truth is they are timeless. The past and the present touch each other and we are caught up in it too. We are in the story here and now physically isolated as we are.

We are called to live as Easter people – not perfect or other worldly but as a community who attempt to reflect God’s love to those with whom we are in contact and to look for and affirm signs of the resurrection revealed all around us.

I think the hope is that if we have been aware of the resurrection in this life we shall be able to receive the final resurrection after physical death. For then we will recognise it as a country we have already entered and in whose light and warmth we have already lived.

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.

‘It’s the evenings which are the worst!’ Certainly that’s my reaction after four weeks of lockdown. During the day I find no difficulty in keeping busy and active, but the evenings are a different matter altogether. Generally I spend them watching something entertaining on the computer before having a commendably sensible early night.

One evening this week, I settled down to watch a fascinating documentary about the reconstruction of Notre Dame in Paris. It is exactly a year since the disastrous fire engulfed and nearly managed to destroy the building. The documentary focused on the painstaking work – now at a complete standstill – to secure the building and make it safe, and to undertake a great deal of research as they begin the long process of rebuilding and restoration.

The programme made it clear that while this task will certainly be thorough, no one can expect it to be quick. Notre Dame has 850 years of history, and even the charred beams and the stone debris, fallen to the ground in the fire, all have many secrets to unfold, and much to teach those who are working to restore. A tempting and easy response might be to send in the diggers and bulldozers and to cast the debris aside as so much rubbish. But this would actually prove as destructive, and possibly just as much as a catastrophe, as the fire itself. Political leaders at the time of the fire may have promised restoration within a particular time-frame. The reality is that the work must go on for as long as it takes, if ‘the splendour of this latter house will surpass the splendour of the former’ as the prophet Haggai puts it in the Old Testament. (Haggai 2. 9)

People all over the world are asking for an answer to just one question: ‘how long?’ They could be asking about the present lockdown, or social distancing, or the production of an effective vaccine to bring the pandemic to an end.  They could be asking about the economic consequences across the world, not least for the poor and the powerless, both near and far.

The response to such life-changing questions, if we are honest, is that we cannot yet know, but we must be prepared to be patient and to wait in hope. At times of uncertainty in my own life, I have always found the words of the Psalms which in normal times we sing each day at Evensong, have been a great source of comfort. May I leave you with words from one such psalm today?

‘I waited patiently for the Lord: and he inclined unto me, and heard my calling. He brought me also out of the horrible pit, out of the mire and clay: and set my feet upon the rock, and ordered my goings.’ (Psalm 40. 1 – 2)

Canon Myles
 
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.