​On this feast of Pentecost, we normally celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit with an ecumenical procession along Hope Street. We can't do that today, but we do invite you to join in worship with us in this Two Cathedrals service to keep the feast: 

Teddy Horsley is a bear who is growing up in a churchgoing family with Lucy, Walter and Betsy Bear. He is growing up to appreciate the rhythm of the Church’s year and the distinctive insights of the Christian tradition. There is a lot for him to explore, and a lot that puzzles him as well.
 
On the Feast of Pentecost Teddy Horsley hears the Church speak about the Holy Spirit, and Teddy Horsley is a puzzled bear. He opens his eyes to look for the Holy Spirit, but he cannot see the Holy Spirit. He stretches out his paws to touch the Holy Spirit, but he cannot grasp the Holy Spirit. He pricks up his ears to listen to the Holy Spirit, but he cannot hear the Holy Spirit. Teddy Horsley is a puzzled bear. 
 
Then Teddy Horsley began to explore the theology of the Holy Spirit. He discovers that the Greek word pneuma can also be translated as breath or wind. He discovers that the Hebrew word ruach refers to the power encountered in the breath and in the wind. Now Teddy Horsley begins to understand. 
       
On a windy day Teddy Horsley cannot see the wind, but he can see the power of the wind blow paper along the street. Teddy Horsley cannot touch the wind, but he can feel the power of the wind tug his kite into the sky. Teddy Horsley cannot hear the wind, but he can hear the power of the wind whistle through the trees. Now Teddy Horsley beings to understand.

On the Feast of Pentecost Teddy Horsley invites us to prepare our homes to participate in the Sunday Eucharist broadcast from Liverpool Cathedral by making a windmill or a kite, or to blow up a balloon to focus our attention on the Gospel message for the day.
 
The image for next Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Trinity, is a waterfall. 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 [email protected].
 
A couple of weeks ago I launched a national survey to explore how churchgoers are feeling during the lockdown. I hope that many people who visit this website today will be willing to participate in the survey. It is completely anonymous and confidential. Find out more here https://tinyurl.com/ycsq9fy2.
 
To learn more about Teddy Horsley, follow this link to his website: https://teddyhorsley.org/, and this link to his page on the St. Mary’s Centre website: http://www.st-marys-centre.org.uk/resources.html.
 
You are warmly invited to join us in worship today here: 

We invite your further engagement with us using the Breakfast and the Bible materials here: 
​

​Teddy Horsley sends his Pentecost greetings to you all.
 
Canon Leslie 

I have no idea if this is something other people have been experiencing but during the lockdown I have been noticing how time feels very different to me. With seemingly no beginning or end the days are punctuated by food, walking the dogs and making sure I stand up from my desk and look far away so I don’t get sore eyes. Time seems to slip away and days slide into another. I call my mum every day and some days I have to check to make sure I haven’t already called her (the one time I did call twice she was freaked out and thought something terrible had happened!).

I am fortunate to have regular prayer times set in my diary with colleagues as well as cathedral worship and other virtual meetings. I am keeping busy with meetings related to the work I do with the diocese including assisting parishes with their social justice work and supporting a number of charities particularly Together Liverpool, Adelaide House, and Micah Liverpool. I have the work I do with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority supporting the Voluntary Community Faith and Social Enterprise Sector and as an advisor for the Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham. In addition I have had to do some quick learning as I have engaged in some of the resilience work supporting the most vulnerable in the Liverpool City Region. These cells are made up of a group of people tasked with the job of ensuring we are kept safe during lock including borough leads, the health and social care providers, NHS, fire police and other emergency responders, military and the voluntary sector. These meetings were not part of my work before the lockdown but it has become an important new part of my current work and practice.

All the new work and the new way of working have thrown my negotiation of time into chaos. Sometimes it feels like I am either wrestling with a wriggly eel or bouncing on a marshmallow. One thing for sure time feels very different in lockdown. So, this week I have been reflecting on how I use my time in lockdown – trying to make sure it doesn’t run away from me or slip out of control but at the same time allowing new patterns to emerge and being patient with myself.

One of my favourite times of the day is around 4pm as the sun comes round into our back garden. The patio shimmers with light and it is a great time to put the washing out. I am not a sun lover so I am grateful that the trees offer a bit of shade as well. A break on the patio is one of the times I enjoy best each day.

However you are using your time in lockdown I pray that you will find something of the glory of God in the way you are spending your time. I pray you find times for peace and times for joy.  

Canon Ellen

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.

As a confirmed landlubber, I have had a curiously intertwined relationship with tugs. It all started around 15 years ago, near a certain estuary on the other side of the country. I conducted a wedding at the church where I was Vicar, and it turned out that the bride’s father, Paul, was the director of a large towage firm on said estuary. Some while after the wedding, Paul rang me to let me know that he had purchased a new tug and needed it ‘christening’. He explained that seafarers are a superstitious bunch (I had gathered that) and would be very reluctant to sail in this vessel unless she had been properly ‘done’. I indicated that I would be honoured to ‘christen’ his new tug but that I would need to research exactly how to do it. In all my time at vicar factory and in my curacy (which was about as far from the sea as you can get in the UK), I had never been instructed in the fine art of christening boats and ships. However, a phone call to a retired chaplain from the Mission to Seafarers soon enabled me to make up the serious deficiency in my skill-set, and some while later the tug was duly christened. Along with Paul’s wife, who was to smash the bubbly and name the said vessel, I was escorted up to the platform outside the bridge in order to perform the ceremony before the assembled crowd on the quayside. It was a grey, drizzly, chilly day and I shouted the words of the service without the assistance of a PA system or megaphone into the teeth of a brisk Nor’easter scything its way off the North Sea. I don’t know whether anyone could hear, but they all cheered when the bubbly was sent smashing into the side of the tug and everyone was happy that the deed was properly done. We all gratefully jumped into our cars to repair to a nearby restaurant overlooking the estuary whilst the newly christened tug steamed up and down outside the restaurant, doing pirourettes and shooting forth vast jets of water from her fire-hydrants. All good fun. Thankfully she didn’t sink and I was asked back on another five occasions to repeat the ritual with more new tugs over the years. To my knowledge, they are all still afloat!
 
Now in Liverpool, with a view over part of the Mersey from my study window, I can actually see tugs at work almost every day. I have a direct view across to the yards of Cammell-Laird and, whenever a ship is moved in or out of their wet dock, a small army of tugs is on hand to guide her safely through the lock-gates. I often see them plying up and down the river, going to the aid of vessels entering and leaving the estuary. The picture above shows one of our local tugs, hard at work, and I am most grateful to Peter Kenny @The Floating Grace for permission to include his photograph. The tugs really are the often unsung heroes of the river in my view , small and yet powerful, able to help ships in and out of the docks. Without them, many would risk coming to grief at the mercy of the swift tides, strong winds and shifting sandbanks of the estuary and Liverpool Bay.
 
Seeing the tugs reminds me that we all need the assistance of special people to come alongside us when we face particular challenges in our lives. One of the hardest things of the current restrictions is that we cannot phyiscally be alongside them. Even the simple, and hitherto taken for granted, aspects of daily living like meeting someone for a coffee or sitting beside their bed in hospital and holding their hand are denied to us at the moment. We can only be alongside in a virtual sense for most people. 
 
This Sunday, we will celebrate Pentecost, remembering the occasion, 50 days after the first Easter Day, when Jesus’ promise to send God’s Holy Spirit came to pass. The believers, some 120 according to Acts 1:15, were anointed with ‘power from on high’ as the Spirit came on them with visible signs of wind, fire and the ability to speak in different languages. In Acts 2:4, the word for ‘Spirit’ literally means ‘breath’, ‘wind’ or ‘air in motion’ in the original Greek. Jesus describes this ‘holy breath’ in John 14:15 as the ‘Advocate’, the Paraclete; which literally means “one sent for to assist another”. It was used in the law courts, to refer to a legal expert who would help to represent you and present your case. In the Mediterranean Sea at the time of Jesus, there were small boats sent out from the harbours to meet incoming ships offshore and to guide them safely into port. They were known as Paracletes too. Jesus is using a metaphor that would be well-known to his hearers. Entering a harbour, especially an unfamiliar one, was a dangerous business, and so it was definitely wise to send for the assistance of the Paraclete to come alongside you and guide you in.
 
Our familiar tugs on the Mersey are, for me, metaphors which helpfully remind me of the Holy Spirit of God; the one called alongside us by Jesus. He knew that negotiating the at times turbulent waters of daily living would cause his followers much challenge and even threaten to shipwreck them altogether. So he calls the Holy Spirit alongside us to guide, protect, strengthen us and, yes, sometimes to tick us off when we’ve drifted into danger. Crucially, the Spirit helps us keep our spiritual compass pointing to Jesus, whose kingdom of light is our safe harbour and anchorage. Just as we should never take for granted our Mersey tugs and the crews who sail them, so we should always be thankful for and welcome alongside the spiritual tug that Jesus sends to meet us afresh each day. You might like to join us this Sunday on-line for our Pentecost Eucharist or for the Zone 2 service via Facebook. You will also find some of the resources that are posted alongside the act of worship to help us reflect on the events of that first Pentecost and how the Spirit can still impact us today. Even in these times when we cannot physically be alongside many of those whom we love, let’s be thankful that God never needs to practise social distancing but delights to come alongside us if we but call!
 
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.

Liverpool Cathedral is a remarkable building and lit up, as it was on May 15th as part of Light Night, makes it look spectacular. Like so many, I admired the talented people who put that display on as we joined with other buildings in the city in being lit. Like so many I enjoyed the many, many photos shared right across social media. It made the building I live next to seem truly magnificent.

Part of me would love to do that more often. Light is so important in the Christian understanding of the world. In the creation story we see God spreading light across His world. Jesus is described as the light of the world. And in ordinary times in the cathedral, and in so many churches, we light candles as we are reminded and remind others that light equals hope. And we need hope at this and every time.

That part of me, on a Thursday in particular, would want to light up the cathedral for the city, for the care workers, the NHS staff and the key workers who are dedicating themselves to brightening all our lives.

However as Dean I also need to consider the financial aspect of what we do. Regularly lighting the outside of the cathedral costs. We have always had to consider where we spend our money and time. I would rather that goes to support the work of Micah Liverpool delivering 280 food parcels to needy folk in the city. I would rather it is saved to support the employment of many local people when we can reopen. I would rather it is spent helping our neighbours than lighting.

Light is hope, but our building is hope. We were built by the people, for the people to the Glory of God. Our building has stood proud for nearly a century. It has been the focus of much joy and sorrow. It has brought the city together and it remains an important icon for Liverpool. But it is not the most important thing. The spirit of the people who work, volunteer, worship and serve here is far greater. It matches the spirit of the city we are praying for and seeking to serve. The Micah team are the light of hope for the hundreds of families they feed. I am proud to serve and lead people that offer so much light.

Liverpool Cathedral is a remarkable building. Its’ presence gives hope and it will be present long after this crisis still giving hope as the people connected to it shine their lights into the communities and city we love and serve.

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.

I live in Lady Chapel Close which means that as I write this and look out of my front window the Cathedral rises into the sky. Often if there is a Service in the Lady Chapel and sometimes in the main space we can hear the organ whose notes are a reminder of the busy life of praise and worship within the building.

Of course Cathedrals are built for gatherings of hundreds and thousands of people who come together for a common purpose and who experience the dynamic of being part of a large crowd.

I first experienced this in 1978 when I was made a Deacon and although I was only one of over twenty people being ordained Deacon or Priest there was enough room for all my family and friends who wanted to be there. Last year I had the privilege of preaching at the ordination service which believe me even after 40 years is still a scary experience! On such occasions the Cathedral is filled with love, hope and expectation.

Interestingly there is a similar atmosphere when our building is used by Liverpool John Moores University for their graduation ceremonies. As Chaplain for almost ten years I attended almost one hundred of those and consistently witnessed people enter for the first time for a secular occasion gaze in wonder at the grandeur of their surroundings dedicated to the glory of God.

Since being the Dwelly Raven Canon I have taken my turn in welcoming those using the Cathedral for grand dinners and ceremonies so vital for our economy and an opportunity for them to experience our hospitality. Often entering the great space from the Lady Chapel and accompanied by a fanfare from the organ an interesting evening becomes a profound spiritual experience of encounter with each other and with God.

Of course all this is impossible at the moment and my heart goes out to those being ordained this year in very different circumstances and those who will merely receive their degrees through the post. I know there will be a new ‘normal’ for a while but in time we will once again be able to experience fully the genius of Giles Gilbert Scott as human ingenuity, resilience, and faithful endeavour will overcome this pandemic.
 
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.
​

Do you remember ‘Come and Praise’? I am a bit too old to remember it from school, but when I arrived in West Derby as a young curate in 1974, it was already going strong in the village school. It was a blue booklet, published by the BBC, with about 75 hymns. Volume 2 came along a few years later, but it was that first volume which has endeared itself to generations of children. This is the book which made popular ‘Colours of day’ ‘Think of a world without any flowers’ ‘One more step along the world I go’ and that amazing harvest number ‘Autumn days’ which people can never forget once they have learned the words.  Several of its songs have found their way into the latest version of that most respectable of hymn books – Ancient and Modern. I’m afraid ‘Autumn days’ was just ‘one more step’ too far!

It was another ‘Come and Praise’ favourite which came into my mind last Thursday on my daily Hope Street walk:  ‘Would you walk by on the other side?’ If that doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps the chorus will jog your memory: ‘Cross over the road, my friend…’  It seems to be the only hymn written by Pamela Varrell, who died in 1996.

I would like to tell you I was meditating on Jesus’s story of the Good Samaritan, which inspired the hymn, but that would not be true!  I have developed the habit of crossing the road to keep social distance whenever possible. On Thursday a woman was approaching me as I began to move to cross over. She did exactly the same, and she got there first. Before we went our separate ways we greeted each other with a friendly smile. The smile doesn’t always happen.

In the song, as in Jesus’s parable, the reason to cross over the road is to offer help to someone in need. Just for now, crossing over to keep our distance happens to be the most loving action in most circumstances. We continue to long and pray for the time when we can once again greet each other warmly, rather than walking by on the other side.

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.

​
Today is the feast of St Bede – a famous monk born in Jarrow in the North East and an exceptional historian and scholar from the 7th/8th century.  A name which resonates for me because my college in Durham was named after him – (St Hild and St Bede), and each year on college day, the chapel choir had the honour of singing in a special service in Durham Cathedral and around his tomb in the Galilee Chapel there.  Described as the ‘Father of English History’, his most famous work ‘The Ecclesiastical History of the English People’, was the first written history of England.  He’s quoted on the Cathedral’s website with the famous line “It has ever been my delight to learn or to teach or to write”…..something in reflection I hope I’ve done in some small way for the sake of those served within my professional, academic and spiritual life, now in Liverpool.

College day was always known for its festivities – from dawn until dusk.  But it was notable that prayer was at the heart of it – through the service of thanksgiving for those gone before, through whose life-works we had the privilege of being there and studying – and from whose memory we too might draw inspiration to go on ourselves in the service of others.

In a similar way, prayer is at the centre of our own lives; or perhaps, especially for me, could always perhaps be more central.  One of the difficulties and beauties of my busy life (as it is for many, I’m sure) is that prayer time seldom feels regular.  Throughout my entire life, except perhaps for the period of time at theological college, my working life has dominated and always had a varied pattern.  As such prayer can and does happen at different times and in different places – but that can be a blessing.  Being in different times and places, helps me to focus prayer very much on those in need, in the world around me in the moment.  It is a joy to pray at my desk, or rushing to teach, travelling to meetings, or praying with individuals within the cathedral outside services.  I am happy to pray anywhere and everywhere – and in one sense that is something I lean upon.  As well as the prayer within our wonderful services, God calls us to pray for anything and everything…..at any time.  My shortest prayer is the sign of the cross – which I make often (just starting to write this piece, always begins with making it).  It is my prayer asking, may all I am about to do be done in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – that all I might say and do is placed under God’s guidance.

Within the cathedral, there are many places which help to focus our prayers – like the beautiful icon in the picture above.  The ‘Hospitality of Abraham’ by contemporary Romanian iconographer Cristi Paslaru copying the original 15th century piece by Russian painter Andrei Rublev.  We will soon be back to pray there again, but in the meantime, let us learn from this present prayer time – that prayer can take place through different media, in many different ways, and with those we know and love and appreciate around us, anytime.
This period of time building up to Pentecost is a time the church focuses particularly on prayer – you may wish to join with some of the initiatives around, some I’ve listed below.  Or perhaps focus your prayers elsewhere in your own way, where you are and whatever you are doing are times you can pray; with a cross in your hand, or running across the park.  At work on the frontline, going to work, having coffee (virtual or otherwise) with the people around.  All prayers are needed, all prayers are sacred, all prayers are heard and answered in some way by our loving God.
 
With my love and prayers for you all; stay safe….
 
Canon Mike

Church of England prayer resources for the Coronavirus Pandemic: https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-parishes/coronavirus-covid-19-liturgy-and-prayer.
 
The global, multi-denominational wave of prayer, across the world: Thy Kingdom Come: https://www.churchofengland.org/more/church-resources/thy-kingdom-come.
 
Together for the Harvest: https://www.24-7prayer.com/signup/81c1ce.

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.

In the olden days a long time ago before the great lockdown, Teddy Horsley looked forward to getting up early on a Sunday morning to go to church with Lucy, Walter, and Betsy Bear. And he looked especially forward to going to church for the great Christian festivals, when he would always take something special with him to capture the mood of the festival.
 
For Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost Teddy Horsley was spoilt for choice. The images associated with those great festivals are plentiful and everybody in church would recognise and relate to Teddy Horsley’s choice. But the equally important Feast of the Ascension left Teddy Horsley a puzzled bear. First he tried making a hot air balloon. Then he tried making a rocket to travel to the moon. Yet none of these images captured his full understanding of the theology behind the Feast of the Ascension. When Teddy Horsley explored more deeply the theology of the Ascension he found there rich and royal enthronement imagery. He found this imagery in the Psalms. He found this imagery in the Apostles Creed. He celebrated this imagery by making a royal crown and placing it proudly on his own head as he too shared in the new life of his ascended King, anointed to reign for ever.
 
As we prepare our homes to participate in the Sunday Eucharist broadcast from Liverpool Cathedral, Teddy Horsley invites us, too, to make a crown to focus our attention on the Gospel message for the day.
 
The image for next Sunday, the Feast of Pentecost, is wind. 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 [email protected].
 
A couple of weeks ago I launched a national survey to explore how churchgoers are feeling during the lockdown. I hope that many people who visit this website today will be willing to participate in the survey. It is completely anonymous and confidential. Find out more here: https://tinyurl.com/ycsq9fy2.
 
You are warmly welcome to join us in worship today here: 

If you’d like to follow along with the liturgy, the Order of Service is here: 

We invite your further engagement with the Breakfast and the Bible notes here:

​Teddy Horsley sends his Ascensiontide greetings to you all.
 
Canon Leslie

Be still, and know that I am God!
Psalm 46.10
 
I am very fortunate to have the room for a desk set up in an office in our house. I know it’s a luxury to be able to have a space that I don’t have to pack away or share with anyone else. But, this week my desk is tired. It has had to endure me sitting at it for quite a lot of time and it is now covered in interesting papers and books that really do need to go back on shelves or at least in a tidy pile.

I suspect those of us who are working from home are feeling the strain of juggling zoom meetings, phone calls, writing reports, reflecting, hitting deadlines and preparing sermons (okay, not everyone who is working from home will be preparing sermons!). Whatever your role, working from home (if you’re not used to it) is a challenge in lockdown. Perhaps you are living alone and finding the lines between working, resting and being at leisure are being blurred. Or you are living with other people who have different patterns and you are finding it hard to fit work and rest and leisure around them. Whatever, the scenario the balance between home and work life has changed. Lockdown ‘working from home’ is a very unusual home-working experience.

This week has been particularly hard for me. I haven’t got that balance right. I zoomed too much and by Wednesday teatime I had a migraine that wiped me out. Having spoken to a few people I think this week has been hard for many of us. We are tired, unable to take proper time away and struggling to find new ways to rest and recharge. Though of course we are very grateful to have jobs, lockdown is taking its toll on home-workers. If you are one of these people who are struggling to get a balance then you will be in my prayers this week. 

Loving God,
I thank you that I have good work to do and a job I enjoy.
I thank you that I have the resources to do this work: a sturdy desk, the internet, a computer, and technology that help me keep connected to people.
I pray that in all I do I will seek the common good and bring you glory in my work.
But today I am tired and I need a rest.
I am looking forward to my Sabbath:
Help me to use this time to rest…to really rest.
In the name of your son Jesus who came to save.
Amen.

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.