Canon Anthony O’Brien –

Cathedral Dean

 

The season of Advent will be already underway by the beginning of December, and within the first few days of the month, we will already have had the first Christmas Carol Concert which has been organised to raise funds for the NSPCC.

 

Also, on Saturday 6 in the first week of Advent, Archbishop Malcolm will celebrate his Silver Jubilee of Ordination as a Bishop with a thanksgiving Mass at the cathedral that day at 12 midday.

 

On the Second Sunday of Advent, there will be a musical meditation at 3pm, with the choir singing an Advent Bach Cantata and the Advent section of Handel’s Messiah. The Annual Schools Advent Services will take place on 10 December, with morning and afternoon sessions at 10:15am and 1pm. With the expansion of the schools singing programme, there will be a chorus of several hundred children leading the music for both these services.

 

We have our own Christmas Concert, “A Celebration of Christmas”, on Saturday 13 December – a night of seasonal favourites and Christmas carols featuring a range of different choirs and musicians as well as all our Cathedral singers. Tickets are available online or pay on the door.

 

Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols” as well as music by Saint Saens will be performed by our children’s choirs at 3pm on the Third Sunday of Advent. Also on the evening of the Fourth Sunday at 5pm, there is our ever-popular Cathedral Choir Service – a free and beautiful way to prepare for the feast of Christmas.

 

Our Christmas Services begin with First Vespers of Christmas and Blessing of the Crib at 3pm on Wednesday 24 December. We have a Christmas Vigil Mass at 6pm and Midnight Mass celebrated by Archbishop Sherrington at 12 that evening. We celebrate Christmas Day Masses at 9am and 11am in the Cathedral and 10am in the Crypt Chapel. There will be no evening Mass, and the Cathedral closes mid-afternoon that day.

 

I hope you are able to join us for some of the services over the next few weeks, and on behalf of the whole Cathedral community, I wish you all a holy Advent and a joyful and blessed Christmas.