Cathedral Record

School Singing Programme launched

by Dr Christopher McElroy Director of Music, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

2022 saw the launch of an exciting new musical venture within the archdiocese whereby archdiocesan staff work together with schools to develop a lifelong love of music and singing.

The Archdiocese of Liverpool School Singing Programme launched in February 2022, and today the programme partners with 13 schools in the archdiocese on a weekly basis, leading around 1450 children a week in developing a wide variety of skills through singing. The weekly sessions in schools are delivered by archdiocesan choral directors Danny Townley and Joe Watson, under the direction of the Director of Music.

Using a bespoke scheme of work which follows both the National Curriculum and integrates with the archdiocese RE ‘Come and See’ curriculum, sessions take place on a weekly basis in each partner school, with the children singing both sacred and secular repertoire. Through these weekly sessions our choral directors seek to unlock the musical potential of the children and develop a lifelong love of music and singing. Music, and singing are primary means of evangelisation. How many of us older people can remember the songs and hymns we sang as children? These words (and melodies) remain with us for a lifetime. By singing stories of our faith, our culture, our history, the children become a part of the living tradition. By singing sacred/ liturgical music, as well as secular songs, we seek to enrich the liturgical life of our schools and parishes. Singing in a group isn’t simply about music. Children develop a wide variety of skills including problem solving, communication and collaboration, creativity, perseverance, exploration and performing. Group singing has also been shown to improve our sense of happiness and wellbeing, an important factor in the lives of children emerging from the difficult years of Covid. Currently the Archdiocese of Liverpool Schools Singing Programme works with schools in Knowsley and Liverpool, but has plans to expand into further areas of the archdiocese in the near future. In addition to weekly sessions in schools, we are beginning to create a network of ‘after-school’ choirs for children who would like to develop their singing further. The first of these choirs is the Knowsley Catholic Children’s Choir, which in its first sixth months has sung at a civic event in Knowsley, Mass at St Columba’s Church for Youth Sunday and at a concert at the Metropolitan Cathedral. Since the launch of the programme children from our partner schools have sung at a wide variety of different liturgical events across the archdiocese, including First Holy Communion Masses, the Good Shepherd Mass and Schools Advent Service (both with a combined choir of over 700 children) and non-liturgical performances of which the highlights have been singing at Anfield and in a concert with members of the Glyndebourne Opera company. Feedback from schools has been very positive: ‘We have been thrilled to see our hymns really take off again and both your considerable energy and enthusiasm in each weekly session has had such a positive impact on the children and staff too. The learning opportunities you have provided have been of the highest quality as well as being thoroughly enjoyed by all. Please keep up the excellent work.’

Cathedral Record

Canon Anthony O’Brien – Cathedral Dean

The Christmas season continues on into January with the Feast of Mary the Mother of God on New Years Day and then the celebration of Epiphany on Friday 6 January. In recent years we have also held an Epiphany Carol Service on the Sunday nearest to the Feast, incorporating a variety of festive choral music and readings appropriate to the visit of the Magi and its significance. This will be at 3.00 pm on Sunday 8 January. Archbishop Malcolm will preside at the 11.00 am Mass the following week for Peace Sunday and members of Pax Christi will have a stall in the Cathedral entrance with information and materials related to their activities. We then begin the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity the following week. There will be a joint Unity Service involving both Cathedral Choirs at Liverpool Cathedral on Sunday 22 January at 3.00 pm – the theme for our prayer this year is ‘praying for unity against injustice’. Throughout the first few weeks of the month the Crypt Halls will be in constant use with John Moores University first year students sitting exams. At the end of the month the remaining graduands from Hope University will have their degrees conferred at a Winter Ceremony in our Cathedral on 26 January. With the recent retirement of Professor Gerald Pillay we may have the first chance to meet the new Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Claire Ozanne.

Pastoral ponderings The Year of Jubileeby Hugh Donleavy

by M.C. Benitan Director of Pastoral Development

Hugh Donleavy, one of our students for the priesthood, shares his experiences while on pastoral placement at St Charles and St Thomas More, Aigburth.

It’s now been two and a half years since Covid struck. I don’t know about you, but it feels like much longer to me. So much changed, and then we got used to it, and now we’ve pretty much moved on, with just a few changes in how we do things. It’s also been just over three months since I moved into the presbytery at St Charles. Again, it seems like it’s been much longer. There are a lot of things I’ve learned, people I’ve got to know, things I’ve got used to.

We’ve all pretty much got used to living here, with each other, and it almost feels like we’ve been here forever. Whenever you start something new it always seems like there’s a steep learning curve at the beginning. But then you fall into patterns and ways of doing things.

It’s been my first time on placement in a parish for Christmas for a couple of years – mostly in seminary we get Christmas itself off, which is a luxury priests obviously don’t have. It’s always a hectic time, and it’s easy to get distracted from the things that are actually important. Unfortunately, Christmas is a particularly busy time for the clergy, but I suppose part of life is doing your best to make the most of the situation you’ve been given. That being said, although it can be hard to prepare and have a prayerful Christmas, I’ve just tried to do my best, accept that Christmas is never really perfect for anyone, and offer it up.

I’m not really one for New Year’s resolutions, but I can see the advantage of having a look back at how the year has gone and seeing what you want to change. I think personally I’m going to make more of an effort to make a good examination of conscience every night, that way, hopefully it won’t be a whole other year before I get round to making some more resolutions - a stitch in time and all that.

In any case, after all the presents, and chocolate ice cream, perhaps it’s time to turn to something more edifying, and, at the risk of throwing in another cliché, think about the real meaning of the season, and what better way to do that than to get ready for Christ’s return visit. Pope Francis has invited the Church on a new Jubilee Journey. We start now, and head towards the Jubilee Year 2025 with the motto ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. Our last Jubilee Year was extraordinary: The Year of Mercy in 2015; while the last ordinary Jubilee Year took place in the year 2000. So, perhaps it is timely to remind ourselves what exactly a Jubilee Year is meant to be before we set off on this pilgrimage.

In the Old Testament, any Jubilee Year was a special year of God’s mercy; an extra Year of Sabbath reflected in human release, reset and revival. It would happen approximately every 50 years (Leviticus 25:8-13) and impacted family lives, management of land, and private ownership. Any Jubilee Year would start with the sound of a loud trumpet on the Day of Atonement. With a real trumpet blast of liberty, prisoners and slaves would be set free, debts would be zeroed out, land would return to its original owners. So, if somebody was kept as a slave, they could go home. If somebody lost their ancestral land, they regained it. If somebody owed money or goods, these debts would be forgiven. And if somebody was locked up, they got an amnesty. In short, an invitation to do something about slavery, poverty and inequality had to be heeded. Yet, such a year was not all celebration and dance. It posed real survival risks as people were not allowed to sow or harvest during the previous Sabbath Year (precisely because it was a Sabbath Year), nor during the consequent Year of Jubilee (because it was an extra special Sabbath Year). For an agrarian nation, it took real faith in God to abandon all pretences of control and trust there would be enough. Equally, if someone grew reliant on a piece of land that was not ancestral, they would lose that provision. This year, in essence, was also a year of shaking up and remodelling the society, and a year of profound trust. Perhaps these dimensions are also good to remember on our pilgrimage towards 2025.

As the Vatican has announced, our first step in 2023 will be our rediscovering of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (1962-65). We will focus on the four main documents called the Constitutions. The second year of preparation (2024) will be dedicated to prayer, and we will focus on Our Father, the Scripture, Holy Spirit, Prayer of Silence, and Our Lady. Although many people will travel to Rome in 2025, dioceses are encouraged to prepare their own local pilgrimages, so we will be only too happy to hear your suggestions.