As life begins to move on slowly to whatever the ‘new normal’ will be as the lockdown restrictions are lifting, I note that we are all being encouraged to walk and cycle, rather than use public transport or drive. I am all for us taking to our bikes, if we have one and are able to ride it. Always with the caveat that we should cycle responsibly, of course. Cycling is carbon-free, good for our fitness and reduces the number of vehicles on the road. I can honestly say that I did put my money where my mouth is in my previous job, since I almost always cycled from my house to the office – only about 4 miles round trip – each day. However, a plea, if I may. As we are encouraged to dig out our old bicycles, can we at least give them a bit of TLC by oiling the chain? I often witness some poor bicycle suffering from ‘rusty-chainitis’! And my heart goes out to it! A precision-engineered chain which left the factory in gleaming condition is now grinding around dry sprockets and chain-wheels which probably haven’t seen a drop of oil since the bike left the shop. It’s just crying out for some 3-in-1! As well as seeing the bike in this condition, you can usually hear it too! Does the rider not realise that he or she is using up valuable energy working against the increased friction? Or am I too squeamish (perhaps from my engineering days) about a poor helpless mechanism in distress?! Mind you, it has to be said that, when I was a young undergraduate studying Mechanical Engineering at Leeds, one of the technicians used to park his large Ducati motorcycle out the back, and its chain was covered in rust. Some advert for an engineer! But apply some oil to a bicycle chain and it’s amazing to see the transformation that results; suddenly it starts running smoothly and quietly. Sweet music to an engineer! So what has prompted my wittering on about showing love and care for bike chains? Just stay with me on this, if you will. We are in the period between Ascension Day (yesterday) and Pentecost (in nine days time) when we are reminded that Jesus instructed his first disciples to wait and watch for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Canon Leslie helped us think about Jesus’ promise to send the Spirit in his blog last Sunday. In the verse before we read of the Ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:5), he is quoted as saying “…you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” There will be more about the work of the Holy Spirit in our reflections next week but Canon Mike pointed us to the diverse working of the Spirit in his recent blog – with reference to Winnie-the-Pooh! In the Bible, there are a number of symbols used to describe the Holy Spirit. Famously, these include fire and wind – as on the Day of Pentecost. But oil is also a symbol of the Spirit, although I should add that I don’t think that the writers of the Bible had in mind Castrol GTX or 3-in-1 bearing and chain oil. Oil is used for anointing kings and priests, and for healing too. And the Holy Spirit of God is given, in one sense, to ‘oil the wheels’ of the Christian and help us to live for Jesus more effectively. It is the Spirit who gives us that desire to be more like Jesus and to grow in our awareness of the things that are holding us back in our Christian journey. It is the Holy Spirit who matures in us, growing spiritual fruit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control – and bestowing diverse spiritual gifts to help us build up God’s church in service, proclamation and outreach. Yet, too many Christians live without a real knowledge of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. We peddle on without oiling our chains and wondering why things are even more difficult than they need be. And it can affect whole churches too. I think how many times churches are beset by deep divisions – often going back years – because of the way we rub up against each other unhelpfully. Some level of difference of opinion is inevitable in churches, but the Spirit can help us be more effective in how we deal with it and learn from it. The Holy Spirit helps us to see one another as Jesus does – fallible but still precious to God, prone to make mistakes and yet capable of being forgiven and forgiving. So as we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus into the heavens as our King and await the coming of his Holy Spirit afresh upon us, let us bring ourselves once more to God’s spiritual bicycle workshop and allow our chains to be oiled! 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.
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Another week has flown by and we are still facing the challenges of Covid 19. This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and for all of us I guess our mental health and wellbeing has been challenged during this Covid 19 pandemic. For many the isolation of being at home on your own is hard. For many living in close proximity with other family members is challenging and for others the daily task of shopping and exercising brings anxiety. And as we move out of lockdown other concerns are raised about the economy which then creates anxiety about our jobs and our income. As I have moved through the week I have been reflecting on the question: How can we take care of our mental health and wellbeing in these times? A question that is being answered by many people through articles in various newspapers ranging from: ‘Mental Health Awareness Week: Everything you need to look after your mental wellbeing, from books to apps;’ to ‘Mental Health Awareness Week: top tips for keeping well during lockdown.’ These articles talk about structuring your day, getting up early, having regular exercise and eating healthily. There is not so much about reflection and prayer or mindfulness or meditation. As you would expect, as a Christian Leader, I value the structure of daily prayer, I am energised by reflecting on scripture and I value praying with others in our community and throughout the world. My faith is important to me and I think is key to my wellbeing and mental health. As you know, through my weekly blogs I have been reflecting as I undertake my daily exercise routine. I have spent an hour each morning walking in St James’ Garden and as I have become less anxious, I have walked the streets of the city. As I walk I have begun to notice more and more things. I have noticed the flowers, I have become aware of the season changing and I have become aware of the beautiful architecture in our city. And as I walk, I pray and offer to God grateful thanks. What I have learnt is to look around me and observe and to be grateful for the little things. All the little things I see help my wellbeing and my mental health. God has given us so much to help us ride this pandemic, if we just look and observe what is around us. So as we say thank you to God on this thank you Thursday let us be grateful for the little things, for those little things that help our wellbeing and our mental health. Let us also be thankful for all who work to help those whose mental health is challenged by life. If you are in need of assistance regarding your mental health, the Mental Health Foundation offers many resources online for help and support: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/your-mental-health/looking-after-your-mental-health. The Church of England also offers resources on their website: https://www.churchofengland.org/faith-action/mental-health-resources. With our metal health and wellbeing in mind can I invite you to take time out to reflect with us and to worship the God who knows and loves you through this Ascension Day Service. 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. For those of you who read these reflections and are members of the Cathedral Sunday morning congregation it must seem that I am the absent Canon! As I hope you know, this is because on most Sunday mornings I am at St Margaret, Toxteth where I am Priest in Charge; a post I combine with being the Dwelly Raven Canon. Last year (in the good old days when we could gather together) we celebrated the Sesquicentennial (150 years) of the consecration of the Church. Over the years it has provided an orphanage, a convent, and a source of education to an ever changing population in Liverpool 8. The appreciation of that ministry was evident when during the dark days of the 1980s while all around there was riot and destruction not a window in the church was so much as cracked. Throughout the years the Parish has been served by faithful and compassionate Priests on whose shoulders it is a privilege to stand, and a variety of congregations have prayerfully sought ways of being Church as we are doing today. When I was first appointed I was a University Chaplain and the main Service was on a Sunday Evening. I had tremendous support including from the Cathedral and invited different preachers each week. You will see some familiar names from 2014. We also joined together for some exciting musical experiences. I suspect the area around the Church must be unique in terms of faith. Across the road is the Greek Orthodox Church, our neighbour is the Synagogue, and the Al Ramah Mosque is just round the corner. Thus there is a rich diversity of cultures as people move in to the area or visit to worship. However it is still a place where there is isolation and social need and as a worshipping community we take seriously the needs and concerns of the people who live around us. These days our Sunday service is a Sung Eucharist at 10.30am. Our Services would be described I suspect as ‘High Church’ as we use candles, colour, music, movement, incense, and the ringing of bells to enhance our worship. On the last Sunday of each month we have a Taize Eucharist at 6.00pm. Before the ‘shut down’ we were a congregation of around 40 and like all Churches we have continued to support each other via social media and provide ‘on line’ Sunday services. My prayer is that as we get back to the new normal we will have grown in faith and have a real commitment to look to ways in which we can live as people who are a reflection of God’s love to all creation. 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 is almost nine years since I moved to my present home in the Cathedral Close. My mother was still well enough to visit, and she enjoyed those times very much. Mothers always manage to spot where there might be room for improvement! What caught her eye was the raised border opposite the front door which runs the length of the houses along the front of the Close. The best way to describe the border is that it was under-developed! After biding her time for a while, my mother ordered shrubs and plants, and the ground was duly cleared, in front of this house at least, in preparation for planting. Almost without a word being spoken, this had a salutary effect along the length of the Close. Within a few months all of the houses had plants and shrubs, along with spring bulbs planted. If my mother could see it now, I know how pleased she would be. The week leading to Ascension Day this Thursday is called Rogation-tide. It was the ancient custom to have a procession during these days, known as ‘beating the bounds,’ when clergy and people would walk along the parish boundary, singing litanies and prayers, to ask the blessing of God upon all the crops. This was part of an annual cycle of prayer centring around agriculture, starting with Plough Sunday in the winter depths of early January going through to Lammas Day on 1st August, when the first fruits of Harvest were at hand. Common Worship rightly provides for all of these occasions, as we become more acutely aware how much we depend upon the created order, and of our responsibilities in caring for it justly and with mercy. Our cathedral does not have a parish, so technically there are no bounds to beat! But clergy colleagues show in their daily blogs on how we are surrounded by sights and smells and sounds which all proclaim the glory and beauty of God’s world. These Rogation days are a good time for us to pause, to be thankful, and to dedicate ourselves once more to the renewal of this fragile world, our island home. Blessed be God, by whose grace creation is renewed, by whose love heaven is opened, by whose mercy we offer our sacrifice of praise. 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. Maybe it’s an effect of the lockdown, that all the confessions are coming out now! Inspired by yesterday’s gospel and the wonderful reflection from Canon Leslie of the thoughts and experiences of Teddy Horsley….voici la famille ‘Pooh’! My own collection of Pooh Bears who have been with me since……University?! Yes indeed, perhaps you thought a younger age? Well, it was one of those strange things that came from endless cups of coffee and conversations with friends at my college in Durham. I think it was after a particularly difficult Physics problems class that I returned to college to declare to all around me that I was definitely a ‘bear of very little brain’! And that was it – from that point on I became Pooh in our group of friends, and we assigned appropriate A. A. Milne characters to each of us…all of which were pretty accurate; including this bear of very little brain! And the family has grown over the years; Pooh bears of all sizes and shapes – and they have become my helpers, and my comforters too, if truth be told, over the many years since. In more recent times, they have especially helped in situations such as all-age worship or at primary school services….or even classes for much older ones too! They can help and inspire in so many ways – as indeed does the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Helper, the comforter, mentioned again in yesterday’s gospel…..when we are taken back to words uttered by Jesus around the table at the last supper. After he had shared with them the new commandment, he brings to light the Helper that will be there to help them achieve just that – to love one another just as Jesus had loved them. Perhaps knowing just how much they will need such helper in a world in which it could be immensely challenging to do just that……to love one another, no matter what. As Jesus did, as he showed that he did in the most immense way possible – by the giving up of his own life. But how do we know it is there for us; this Holy Spirit, this Helper – one that comes in different forms, just as the bears above are all Pooh, but characterised in different ways. One of the chief claims theologically about the Holy Spirit is its diversity – in the forms that it takes and the context of how, when and where too. These are perhaps deep thoughts for a conversation another day – but in the everyday around us, I see the spirit which helps us to love one another being enacted, in fact, everywhere – wherever kindness, generosity, love and graciousness are being shown in the words and deeds of so many people around. Perhaps that’s the only deeply theological act we need right now – to see that in helping each other, whoever we are of whatever background and in whatever context, then that is loving one another as Jesus did; and whoever does so, in whatever shape or form, therein lies the work of the Helper, the Holy Spirit. In this week Oh Lord, may your Helper, your Holy Spirit, work in me, through me, all around me…..for the good of others. Amen. With my love and prayers for you all; stay safe…. Canon Mike 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 used to get up early on a Sunday morning to go to church with Lucy, Walter, and Betsy Bear. Since lockdown happened and Teddy Horsley went into self-isolation in North Wales, Sunday church has been coming to him in his home on the computer screen. Teddy Horsley finds this all very strange. He finds it difficult to settle down and to believe that he really is in church. It is all too tempting not to stay the course right through to the blessing at the end, and to search for something else to watch on the resourceful internet. Since engaging with Exploring the Sunday Gospel at Home Teddy Horsley has discovered that it is this preparation before the Sunday service that helps him to settle down for the service and to stay tuned in. When Teddy Horsley brought his sheep to the service two Sundays ago (the Gospel was about Jesus the Good Shepherd), he felt more like a participant and less like a spectator. When he brought his map to the service last Sunday (the Gospel was about Jesus as The Way), that worked well for him too. Now this Sunday, as the Gospel reading explore Jesus’ promise of sending the Paraclete, the Advocate, the Guide, Teddy Horsley has himself come along as the Guide. In today’s picture Teddy Horsley is remembering how he served as a guide to what was his favourite cathedral (before finding Liverpool Cathedral that is). You may care to follow his adventure more fully here: https://teddyhorsley.org/teddy-at-bangor-cathedral. The image for next Sunday is Royal Crowns to celebrate the Ascension of Jesus enthroned on high. 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. Last week 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. We warmly invite your participation in our Sunday service video here: You are further invited to engage with us in the Breakfast and the Bible document here:
Canon Leslie
My hair is the longest it has been for decades. I like short hair – very short hair. I also don’t like my hair to be flat. So, the lockdown has been particularly hard for me as I have had to let my hair do whatever it does naturally. I have promised the person who cuts my hair that I won’t mess with it so I am facing the prospect of having really quite an impressive mop by the end of lockdown. My 82 year old mother who lives 250 miles away would see her hairdresser every week for a wash and blow-dry. I speak to her every day and we often speak about the state of our hair. My mum is missing the weekly conversations and the conviviality of the salon. She, like me, is not enjoying the lengthening and tattiness of her hair. It is these small things, the things that make us feel comfortable about ourselves, the normal things we do almost without thinking - these are the everyday activities that I have been reflecting on this week. I will never take for granted again the freedom I have to get my hair cut, to pop the shops for bread and milk, to choose clothes I like and try them on in a shop. I won’t ever take for granted shaking hands with strangers or kissing my mum. And even though I am not a hugger I am slightly missing having a hug with my friends. So, this week I would like to give thanks and pray for those people who have looked after me and I may have taken for granted - particularly Kathy and David who have patiently cut my hair for decades, whose skills I am very grateful for, and who I miss a lot. 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. A striking aspect of the Liverpool skyline is the number of tower-cranes. Last year, I counted over a dozen as I looked back towards the city from the Mersey Ferry. Tower-cranes, love them or loath them, definitely are signs of economic investment and aspiration. Many would regard them as signs of hope and regeneration, I am sure. From my top-floor study in Cathedral Close, I am blessed with a splendid vista looking across the city centre across the Mersey and the Wirral, with the currently out-of-bounds mountains of north-east Wales in the distance. I can see a good many of these tower-cranes. In fact, their movements have been a re-assuring sign of encouragement to me during the lockdown since at least that part of the economy has continued to operate apparently normally, when many other areas of activity have shut down. Let’s hope that, post Covid, there will be tenants and businesses who can afford to occupy the towers and other buildings that the tower-cranes are busy building. Being an engineer by training, I know that tower-cranes don’t just happen – they have to be carefully designed, manufactured and operated. In some unremarkable offices and laboratories, engineers will have done their finite-element analyses, materials testing, scale-modelling and wind-tunnel testing to produce a structure that is immensely strong, able to flex safely in the wind, and yet light enough to be hoisted aloft. And how do you erect and dismantle a tower crane? That I was able to witness in the last few weeks as a new crane was put up just below us (the one in the picture) and one taken down, a bit closer to the river. Both required huge mobile cranes to do the honours, plus a team of workers in hi-viz gear performing some gravity-defying stunts way up above the streets of Liverpool. It wasn’t quite like those iconic pictures of the remarkable men who built the early New York skyscrapers; perhaps you have seen black-and white pictures of them deftly walking along RSJs hanging hundreds of feet in the air and even sitting on them to eat their packed lunches? I don’t think that the HSE would be too impressed by that these days. But I remember thinking that I am glad that I don’t have their job. I’m better with heights than I used to be but not quite that good! Whilst there are no references to tower-cranes in the Bible, towers crop up quite a bit, and not always in glowing terms, it has to be admitted. In Genesis 11:4, the nations of the world combine their efforts to construct a huge tower: “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.” The Tower of Babel, possibly an enormous ziggurat, was there seen as a sign of human hubris and of us trying to engineer a way to immortality and god-like status. Whereas only God can occupy that place and provide the means by which humans can reach him. So God sends confusion of language and communication in order to thwart their efforts. Towers 0, God 1. Towers were also signs of strength as they formed an essential component of the defences of a city or town: “He [King David] said to Judah, ‘Let us build these cities, and surround them with walls and towers, gates and bars; the land is still ours because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought him, and he has given us peace on every side.’ So they built and prospered.” In the New Testament there has clearly been a serious accident with the Tower of Siloam falling down and killing eighteen people (Luke 13:4). Asked whether this was divine judgement, Jesus appears to imply that it is more likely to be an accident caused by human error in building a sub-standard tower. Some of the most positive ‘tower’ metaphors are to be found in the Psalms and the Proverbs. God is likened to a ‘strong tower’ on several occasions (e.g. Proverbs 18:10): “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe.” In Psalm 61:2b-3 David cries out to God, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.” Doubtless the watchman of Psalm 130:6 is atop a tower as he scans the distant horizon for the signs of the dawn – a picture of God’s coming salvation. Perhaps those are helpful metaphors to us in lockdown, where the very foundations of how we order our lives and civilisation are being shaken to the core. In the midst of all the uncertainly God is still unchanging, a tower built on firm foundations. He is happy for any who seek him to run into his refuge and be comforted – which literally means to be given strength. Equally, he is content that, safely in the tower of the Lord, we watch patiently and faithfully for the dawn when the world will return to normality, albeit a new one, and we can re-connect with each other and the things that we enjoy doing together. So, if you are able to get out for daily exercise, or have some kind of view from your window, why not have a gaze this week at the towers and tower-cranes of Liverpool? Maybe you can see the tower of Liverpool Cathedral (it seems to be visible from all over the city) which survived the bombing of WW2 and points our gaze even above itself into the heavens. Let us be reminded that God is our strong tower and the place from which we can look out for better times to come. 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. Another Thursday and another week gone. This coming week should be different from last week as we begin to come out of lockdown and more and more people return to work. For us in the Church there will not be much difference. We will continue to pray together for the city and region through our daily prayers and through prayerforliverpool.org. We will continue to give food through Micah and its foodbank. But what will be different is the opportunity to either live stream our Sunday service or to pre-film it in the Cathedral. So, I have pre-recorded Sunday’s Eucharist from the Cathedral. It was wonderful to be back in the Cathedral and to offer worship for the whole people of God in that beautiful place. Our regular Sunday Service is a Eucharist and the word Eucharist derives from the Greek word to give thanks. Shortly before his death Jesus shared a last supper with his disciples, he offered bread and wine, ordinary everyday things, in praise and thanks to God and commanded his disciples to ‘do this in memory of me’. As I have said over the past few weeks giving thanks and praise is so important and for me the Eucharist service helps me to focus on giving thanks and praise. Giving thanks and praise for this beautiful city, giving thanks and praise for all who supply my daily bread and let us not forget being grateful for the wine. So as we slowly move out of lockdown let us give thanks for that extra walk into the city, let us give thanks for the extra bike ride along the sea front, let us give thanks for the ability to play golf once more. Let us be a grateful people and let us be grateful for the small steps that will take us to full engagement together where we can give thanks and praise for each other face to face. 2 meters apart of course! Thank you God for the small things in life. Thank you God for our City and for Merseyside. Thank you God for my daily bread. Thank you God for walking with us all through these difficult time. 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. From the very beginning of the ‘Shut Down’ Pauline and I decided that we would try to make the most of the time we were allowed to exercise. My heart goes out to you if for whatever reason you have not been able to leave home. Today I invite you to join us on what has become one of our favourite walks. Leaving our home in Lady Chapel Close we make our way to Hope Street, named after William Hope, a merchant whose house stood on the site now occupied by the Philharmonic Hall and by a happy coincidence his name is now synonymous with the 2 Cathedrals. Fittingly, half way along we pass the statues of David Sheppard and Derek Worlock reminding me of the time when I was the Diocesan Youth Officer that we released 500 helium - filled balloons at the same spot, as the procession moved between the Cathedrals at Pentecost. After climbing the 56 steps at the front of the Metropolitan Cathedral we go behind to the piazza where I was present when, during his visit to Liverpool, Pope John Paul 11 celebrated Mass for thousands of young Roman Catholics. Just beyond the piazza are the original ‘Red Brick’ buildings of the University of Liverpool which gave that name to those universities founded at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Centuries and to which I was Chaplain before joining the Cathedral staff. Now all is quiet and our thoughts are with today’s young people anxious to continue their education. Our walk now takes us past the Augustus John pub named after the famous artist and Professor of Painting at the university who died in 1961 and the Barbara Hepworth sculpture of ‘A Square with Two Circles’. We cross Grove Street and approach the entrance to the Williamson Tunnels created under the direction of the tobacco merchant, land owner and philanthropist between 1810 and 1840 to give employment and income to those in direst poverty. By contrast to the gloomy depths of underground we journey on to the beautiful Abercromby Square laid out in the 1820s and named after Sir Ralph Abercromby, who defeated the French at the battle of Alexandria in 1801. Turning for home we make our way to Falkner Square. It was created in 1835 by Edward Falkner, a property speculator. Almost unbelievably it was built in open country at the time, and his terrace on Upper Parliament Street was considered so far away from the town it was nicknamed Falkner’s folly! So now back down the hill to our magnificent Cathedral and home. As well as dipping into the rich heritage of our city we have also passed unavoidable evidence of the extensive new buildings going up all around us. Over the years the people of Liverpool have faced many and varied challenges . They have responded with compassion, creativity, and with a faithful sense of destiny. Today we need those qualities and more as we build on the past and look with hope and confidence to the future. 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 |