Cathedral Record

Bishop John Perumbalath to be Bishop of Liverpool

Bishop John Perumbalath with Bishop Bev Mason

On Tuesday 18 October it was announced from Downing Street that the current Bishop of Bradwell in the Diocese of Chelmsford, Bishop John Perumbalath, is to be the ninth Bishop of Liverpool following Bishop Paul Bayes who retired last February.

Bishop John comes from the ancient Christian community in Kerala, South India, and was ordained into the Church of North India in 1994. He moved to the UK in 2001 taking up positions in the Diocese of Rochester. Bishop John then served as Archdeacon of Barking before becoming the Bishop of Bradwell in 2018. Amongst other roles, Bishop John is the Chair of Churches Refugee Network of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. He is the Church of England’s Lead Bishop on Churches Together in Britain and Ireland relations and a trustee of CTBI. He chairs Christians Aware, an educational charity, and serves on the Anglican Communion-wide Advisory Group of USPG, an Anglican mission society. He also lectures widely on faith and social engagement and in Biblical theology. Bishop John is married with one adult daughter. He is a keen walker and enjoys reading poetry and novels from various parts of the world. He says, ‘I am delighted and humbled to have received this call to be the next Bishop of Liverpool. I have come to love Liverpool through my numerous visits when my daughter was in university here for six years. I look forward to becoming part of the vibrant and diverse communities served by the Diocese of Liverpool and I want to proclaim and live out a message of hope, peace, and justice. I pray that I will lead a church that is faithful in offering our communities the hope that we have in God, serving the communities by working together well and in partnership with others.’ Welcoming the appointment Bishop Bev Mason, Bishop of Warrington, said ‘Bishop John is an excellent appointment to our diocese and his wisdom and grace will help guide us as we continue to seek to be fit for mission asking God for a bigger church to make a bigger difference. I look forward to welcoming him and Jessy and working alongside him in our diocese.’ Bishop John is expected to be installed in Liverpool Cathedral in a special service early next year.

Cathedral Record

Canon Anthony O’Brien – Cathedral Dean

This year Advent began on the earliest date that it can be with Christmas falling on a Sunday. This means that the Advent season extends over the full 28 days and will be well underway once we begin the month of December. Throughout the month there are a considerable number of charity concerts and seasonal events, too many to list here, so I have just highlighted our main services throughout the month. On Sunday 4 December, the choir will sing one of J S Bach’s famous Advent Cantatas ’Wachet Auf’ (‘Sleepers Awake’) instead of the usual evening prayer. Then on the following Sunday afternoon the boy choristers will perform Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols. The Schools Advent Service will be at 1.30 pm on Wednesday 7 December. With the Schools singing programme now well underway there will be a chorus of several hundred children singing the music for this service. We have our own Christmas Concert, ‘A Celebration of Christmas’ on Saturday 10 December at 7.00 pm – a night of seasonal favourites and Christmas Carols featuring a range of different choirs and musicians. Tickets are available for this on ‘ticketsource.co.uk/metcathedral’. Then as usual we have our Festival Carol Service at 5.00 pm on the final Sunday of Advent, 18 December. Throughout Advent we collect for the Women’s Refuge and the Micah foodbank and this year the contributions will be needed more than ever. Our Christmas Services begin with First Vespers of Christmas and Blessing of the Crib at 3.00 pm on Saturday 24 December. We have a Christmas Vigil Mass at 6.00 pm and Midnight Mass at 12.00 am that evening. Then on Christmas morning at 9.00 am and 11.00 am in the Cathedral and 10.00 am in the Crypt Chapel. There will be no evening Mass on Christmas 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 Joyful and Blessed Christmas.