Alban News September - November 2023 Welcome | Updates | News
Worship
Regular Services
Sundays
8am Eucharist
9.30am Parish Eucharist
11.15am Choral Eucharist (1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th Sundays)
11.15am Matins (3rd Sunday)
12.30pm Eucharist (3rd Sunday)
6pm Choral Evensong
Weekdays
7.30am Morning Prayer
8am Eucharist
12noon Eucharist at the Shrine
5pm Evensong (Evening Prayer on a Monday)
Saturdays
8.30am Morning Prayer
9am Eucharist
12noon Eucharist at the Shrine
5pm Evensong
Monthly Services
10am 4th Wednesday
Mothers’ Union Eucharist
2.30pm 5th Saturday
Diocesan Service for the Deaf
Ecumenical Services
Roman Catholic Mass is celebrated every Friday at 12noon.
German Lutheran
A service in German is held on the last Tuesday of every month at 7pm.
Free Church
First Wednesday of every month at 11am.
Orthodox Liturgy
A service is held once a month on a Tuesday at 10.30am.
Opening times
The Cathedral is open daily 8.30am – 5.30pm.
Special Services
Jewish New Year
Sunday 10 September, 1.30pm
Pet Blessing Service
Sunday 1 October, 3pm
Harvest Festival
Sunday 8 October
Saying Goodbye
Monday 9 October, 7pm
All Souls Requiem Eucharist
Thursday 2 November, 5pm
Remembrance Sunday
Sunday 12 November, 10.50am
Highlight Events
Art of the Abbey, an exhibition by Martin Clark
Tuesday 19 September - Sunday 1 October
Celebrating 40 years of Ecumenism
Varius dates in October
Sparking Wonder - Science, Religion, and Magic
Monday 16 October, 7.30pm - 9pm
Renaissance Light Show
24 - 28 October
Fireworks Spectacular
Saturday 4 November, from 6pm
A Day Chaplain is available to talk most days.
Tickets for all our events are available through our website.
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Message from the Dean
Pentecost to Advent 2023
Welcome to this edition of Alban News as we all enjoy the late flush of summer, while nature starts to point us to the changing season.
In this year of our Cathedral life we are taking the season from Pentecost to Advent to discern what our mission and ministry priorities should be for the next five years.
Our prayer is that we would hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church, and we are doing our best to listen well right across our Diocese and here in our Abbey community.
During autumn there will be opportunities for our congregation, volunteers and staff to be part of this vision making, both at meetings and in an online survey.
Look out for dates in the Cathedral newsletter and emails. Please do take part in this important work.
Early in Advent, Chapter and Abbey Assembly will together review all that we have heard and we hope to share their conclusions with our Cathedral community and Diocese in early 2024.
Founded on the good news of Jesus Christ and the story of Alban and Amphibalus, our Cathedral priorities set by Chapter in 2018, have guided our work and served us very well as they focused on the completion of the Lucas Welcome Centre, the new Cathedrals Measure 2021 and beginning to address the challenges of a global pandemic.
We have much to celebrate and we look forward with faith and hope to all that God is calling us to be and do in the season ahead.
Jo Kelly-Moore | The Dean
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Still Cast Photography
Social Justice
Remembering Hiroshima – the Call for Peace
On 6 August members of local churches, led by those from St Alban and St Stephen’s, gathered at the Peace Pillar in the Deanery garden, Sumpter Yard for a moving service of meditation and prayers for peace to mark the 78th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Pillar was given by Japan to the people of St Albans in gratitude for the courage and compassion shown by Dean Thicknesse, who declined to hold a service of celebration at the Cathedral or join in the ringing of the city’s bells in recognition of the death and destruction caused by the use of nuclear weapons. Its presence at the entrance to Sumpter Yard remains a constant reminder to us all of the devastating consequences of war and conflict and the continuing need to strive for peace.
As Christians we are called to be peacemakers and to work and pray for an end to war and violence. The call for peace is as relevant now as it was in 1945, as we witness conflict in so many parts of the world, including Ukraine, Africa and the Middle East. The impact on people’s lives is clearly visible: at the Abbey and in other churches in the city, we are welcoming and supporting people from a wide range of countries who are seeking sanctuary from conflict, oppression or persecution. The work of the Cathedral’s Asylum Support group is a vital response to the needs of those who have been uprooted from their home countries, offering friendship and practical support. Inspired by Alban’s example and the Benedictine tradition of hospitality for those in need, the welcome we extend is a central part of our ministry in this place.
Phil Waller | Social Justice Group
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Eco Church: Silver Award
We are delighted to announce that St Albans Cathedral has become just the eleventh cathedral to be awarded the Eco Church Silver Award. We heard this really exciting news just a couple of weeks ago and it builds on our Bronze Award back in May 2021 and the work that our Eco Team and Environmental Strategy Group have been doing in recent times to lead the way in our commitment to the Environment as a Cathedral community. Eco Church is a scheme launched in 2016 and run by A Rocha UK to equip churches to care for God’s creation. To get an award a church must demonstrate environmental commitment in the following five areas:
Worship and teaching
Management of church buildings
Management of church land
Community and global engagement
Lifestyle
Some of the exciting work in recent times here has included our change to energy efficient bulbs in parts of the Cathedral and in our offices, a commitment to greater recycling, greater use of sustainable transport, teaching and preaching on environmental issues with panel discussions, sermons and lectures, reducing our energy use and switching to 100% renewable tariffs, the care of the Orchard and North Churchyard with biodiversity surveys and the development of an eco garden behind Cathedral House, the Sumpter Yard landscaping project and our ever closer work with SustFest and other local green partnerships.
But we do not rest on our laurels. There is much still to do as we plan and develop strategies to become Carbon Net Zero by 2030 and we look forward to sharing the various stages of our decarbonisation strategy in the coming months. And, of course, we start work straight away to turn this amazing award into the Gold one!
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Fr Will | Canon for Mission and Pastoral Care
Environment
Music
Choir recording news
This summer the Cathedral Girls Choir and Lay Clerks of the Cathedral Choir have been busy making a recording of carols and anthems by the Hertfordshire composer Elizabeth Poston (1905-1987) which is due for release internationally by Naxos Records at the end of November.
Poston was a prolific composer who is best known for her exquisite carol Jesus Christ the Apple Tree. She mostly concentrated on choral miniatures and wrote widely for radio and television. Poston was born near Stevenage and lived most of her life there in Rooks Nest House, the childhood home of the author E.M. Forster. An erudite and widely-travelled woman, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music and privately with Ralph Vaughan Williams. During wartime she worked for the BBC where she described her career there as ‘meteoric’ and was soon given responsibility for co-ordinating the broadcast of specific musical works as coded information about military action.
After the war, Poston was instrumental in the creation of the BBC’s ‘Third Programme’ for which she collaborated with writers including Terence Tiller and Dylan Thomas. The thirty-minute sequence The Nativity, included on the album, dates from this time.
For its recording the choristers and Lay Clerks are joined by a number of professional soloists: former choir members Nina Vinther, Isabelle Blain and Oliver Martin-Smith, and current singing teacher Alexandra McPhee. Many other beautiful carols and anthems – almost all receiving their premiere recordings – are included in the recording.
These excellent pieces now form an important part of the Cathedral’s choral repertoire: the recording and its fascinating music will hopefully attract significant interest from choirs around the world.
The Cathedral Music Department is very grateful to St Albans Cathedral Music Trust, The Fraternity of the Friends of St Albans Abbey, and private donors for their generous sponsorship of this project.
Tom Winpenny | Assistant Master of the Music
Children and Youth
The last few months have been exciting and busy in the world of our young people!
A few highlights have included welcoming Anna, our Children and Families Worker, setting up a children’s area during the 9.30am service, and the various end of term celebrations that we shared with our young people.
We wish all the young people well over the summer and as they come back for a new term. Our children’s area in the nave has been a tremendous success, and thanks to Anna and other helpers for their work in making this happen. Previously, on Sundays where we have creche, it has been held in the Offa Room, which has meant that the children and their parents cannot fully participate in the service.
The new space is near the altar and has a good selection of toys and activities, so that children and adults alike can have an appropriate space and are also engaged throughout our worship, at the centre of the church.
We have particularly strong links with the Abbey Church of England VA Primary School, and this was especially clear at the end of the summer term. I was delighted to be asked to say a few words, and pray a blessing on the leavers at the end of term assembly. This was an emotional morning – and not just for the parents! The leavers’ Eucharist also had its fair share of emotion, with the Year Sixes, who I have come to know well, gathering around the High Altar for a time of private prayer and reflection.
My thanks go, as ever, to the whole of the children’s ministry team, and if you would like to help – particularly with our new youth group – please do get in touch!
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Fr Calum | Youth Chaplain
© Toby Shepheard
© Toby Shepheard
Recent Events
Since May 2023 we have begun to diversify the type of events the Cathedral has been hosting, in order to expand our audiences and generate new income streams, to continue to keep the Cathedral free and accessible to all. These have included Candlelit Concerts of Queen, George Michael, Fleetwood Mac and Meatloaf sung by Westend performers, a Gin & Rum Festival and a Silent Disco in the Nave.
Each event has brought in regular visitors experiencing the Cathedral in a new way, as well as visitors who have never entered before, or haven’t since they were at school. During these events we have welcomed over 7,500 visitors through the doors.
Feedback from attendees of these events has been incredibly positive, many commending the variety of the events, and one local in particular, commenting that she ‘felt proud of the Cathedral and all that it is doing to attract visitors.’
We are excited to continue to broaden our events programme, with performances from the London Film Music Orchestra in September and November and screenings of the Snowman in December accompanied by a full orchestra. We are also welcoming back the Light Show in October and expanding the offer to include more SEND slots and Light Show Lates.
Carys Duggan-Rees| Events and Visitor Experience Manager
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Cathedral Property and Buildings Review
There is a phrase in a prayer that is sometimes used in the Eucharist that says ‘All things come from you, and of your own do we give you.’ This sentiment sits at the heart of good stewardship and recognises that everything we have in our possession and responsibility has been entrusted to us by God and therefore we should use it wisely and well.
It is in this spirit we have recently begun a Cathedral Property Review, which seeks to look at our stewardship of the buildings, other than the gem that is the Cathedral itself, that are in our care and concern. After an extensive tender process, we have appointed the experienced consultants Purcell Oculus Management who will bring their fresh eyes and very considerable experience to this review during the Autumn. They will be looking at the Chapter House, Cathedral House and other ancillary buildings, our residential properties occupied by staff and clergy and other residential properties let out as a source of income.
The consultants will be helping us, amongst other things, to explore some of these questions:
1. Which spaces are well used and working well for us in our mission and ministry?
2. Which buildings are underused or being used for the wrong things?
3. Which spaces could be developed and used in new or better ways?
4. Which buildings need investment to improve their performance as an operational space?
5. Which buildings should we be spending money on to improve the fabric?
6. Which buildings need work in order to improve their environmental performance?
7. Which buildings might warrant sale as they do not serve our mission?
8. Which buildings, if any, should be acquired to open up new possibilities for the future?
9. Which building are performing well as an investment and which are not?
10. How can our buildings and spaces better serve our future mission as it emerges?
It is an exciting review and we look forward to sharing the recommendations that emerge. It will give Chapter and all of us much to pray for and be excited about.
Tim Fleming | Chief Operating Officer and Fr Will | Canon for Mission and Pastoral Care
Legacy fundraising
Legacy fundraising is the practice of asking individuals to leave a gift to a charity in their Will.
At the Cathedral we greatly benefit from those who generously choose to remember this place through a legacy donation. They help us remain free and accessible to everyone, respond to unforeseen challenges in our community, nation and world, and provide us with financial visibility that help lay the foundations for the future.
It is important to remember that leaving a legacy is a sensitive issue, and requires formal administration through a Will. Leaving a gift in a Will reduces the amount of inheritance tax a family is liable to pay and is a cost-effective way of donating.
This is because legacies to charities are exempt from inheritance tax. Further, charitable gifts are not only tax-free themselves, but can also reduce the amount of inheritance tax that the rest of an estate will pay.
For example, if you give at least 10% of your taxable estate to the charity, the inheritance tax rate for the rest of your estate drops from 40% to 36%.
In the coming months the Cathedral will have new leaflets on the floor and on our website that will provide further information in regard to leaving a legacy, However, if you would like to discuss this matter in more detail please contact the Cathedral’s Development team.
Charlie Miles | Head of Development and Fundraising
charlie.miles@stalbanscathedral.org
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© Toby Shepheard
Celebrating 40 years of Ecumenism
It was forty years ago at Sunday evensong in October 1983 that Bishop John Taylor welcomed the Revd Donald Lee and Fr Robert Plourde as Free Church and Roman Catholic ecumenical chaplains of St Albans Cathedral. This was followed by the first of regular services in each of these traditions which continue to this day. Alongside this, our German Lutheran congregation celebrates its own fiftieth anniversary this year, and in 1998 a regular Orthodox Liturgy was added to our range of services. Even now, this ecumenical experiment remains unique among cathedrals and one of our most significant good news stories.
It is easy to forget the initial impact of this initiative under the leadership of Dean Peter Moore, not least with the celebration of the first Roman Catholic Mass on Friday 14 October, where members of St Columba’s College rugby team were recruited to keep order from protestors. Now, alongside these regular services, we are blessed to have many members of other churches actively part of nearly every aspect of our Cathedral life, including as day chaplains. Whilst progress of official ecumenical dialogues remains frustratingly slow, this ‘bottom up’ ecumenism remains an invaluable gift and sign of what is possible.
To mark this significant anniversary we are planning a series of celebrations through October which members of all our congregations are warmly encouraged to attend. We are also very grateful for Pam McElroy who has chronicled various reflections on the ecumenical chaplaincy in a booklet which is available in the Cathedral Bookshop, so do pick up a copy to learn more.
Free Church Service
Wednesday 4 October, 11am
Roman Catholic Mass
Friday 13 October, 12noon
Free Church Choirs Festival
Saturday 14 October, 7pm
Choral Evensong with Eucumenical Recommitment
Sunday 15 October, 6pm
Preacher: Bishop of St Albans
Orthodox Liturgy
Tuesday 17 October, 10.30am
German Lutheran Service
Tuesday 31 October, 7pm
Fr Kevin | Canon Chancellor
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Adult Learning
Experiencing Wonder with Adult Learning
Encounter a blend of magic and mystery in our autumn programme of talks with stellar guest speakers and spell-binding topics.
On 16 October, we welcome for the first time science magician Dr Matt Pritchard to investigate the triple helix of science, religion, and magic. Enjoy a fast-paced talk with magical demonstrations which blends Matt’s expertise as Associate of the Inner Magic Circle and former atomic physics researcher at Durham University.
With your appetite whetted, join us again on 23 November to question whether science is to be feared or treasured in a life of faith with Professor David Wilkinson.
A regular contributor to Radio 4’s Thought for the Day, David specialises in the relationship between Christian theology and popular culture – from Stephen Hawking to the spirituality of the Star Wars films – and you can be assured of a speed of light visual tour of science and faith, and how we can find mystery in both.
Join us, and discover how the role of science can contribute to a more wonder-full life!
Sparking Wonder - Science, Religion and Magic
Monday 16 October, 7.30pm – 9pm
Wonder, Wisdom and Worship: God’s Gift of Science
Thursday 23 November, 7.30pm – 9pm
Isabelle Lepore | Learning and Events Assistant
Tickets available on our website.
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© Creative Commons
Mission Giving
Hands at Work (H@W) is a Christian Charity supporting orphans and vulnerable families – the poorest of the poor – in 8 African countries, through provision of the “3 essential services” – food, healthcare and education. The Abbey community began links with H@W in 2012, and for many years we have been in partnership with the community “Msengeni A” in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), together with St Luke’s Church. We sent teams to Msengeni in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Between these supportive visits we have continued our partnership through fundraising and prayer, our Mission Giving, regular updates and team days. Our Prayer Partner scheme has ensured that the community is prayed for by members of each church. H@W seeks to mobilise African churches to care for the poor in their local community.
The local church in Msengeni is now showing that it is able to do this, which is wonderful!
We have played a small part in helping it reach this amazing point: the love and prayers of each team, each church and of our prayer partners; your generous donations; the relationships our visits have built with the care workers, children and regional support leaders. Thank you!
From September we will fundraise one last time for Msengeni A, for a more secure and lockable toilet, a youth shelter and a water harvesting system - all of which we wish to contribute to!
H@W has recently suggested we partner with a very poor and vulnerable rural community, Miswa in Zambia. Back in 2021 we raised money for a borehole in Miswa, so we already have a connection. We’ll keep you posted.
www.handsatwork.org/uk-who-we-are
Juliet Lyal | Hands at Work Team Member
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Governance
St Albans Cathedral Peer Review 2023 Highlights
The Cathedral Peer Review Programme is run by the Association of English Cathedrals and helps Chapters and Senior Management Teams take stock of their current position by reviewing their governance and management activity, in particular at the current time the preparations for registration with the Charity Commission. The peer review process is a positive way for each cathedral to hear an external perspective, share ideas, and validate what is already good but also help identify what could be improved.
Our peer review team comprised the Dean of Liverpool, the Chief Operating Officer of Hereford Cathedral and the previous Cathedral Administrator of Southwark Cathedral.
The team’s overriding impression was of a very well-run cathedral, balancing well its dual roles of being a centre for mission and being a heritage and visitor destination. The team highlighted the strength of welcome from staff and volunteers alike, the all-round professionalism in all that we do, our creative promotional and marketing activity, our recent focus on volunteer engagement, the careful decisions we have made around our staffing structures, our focus on safeguarding, and the relative stability of our finances.
The review helpfully reaffirmed the strengths that Chapter and the Senior Management Team had highlighted through a self-assessment exercise carried out in advance of the visit. These are the value of what the Alban, Britain’s First Saint project brings to us as a cathedral community, our ongoing commitment to children and young people, and our work towards the implementation of the Cathedrals Measure.
In looking at areas for continued focus, the team encourages us to continue the development of our excellent work with children and adults across learning and community engagement, to prioritise our journey of greater parity between the girls’ and boys’ choirs and innovation in wider musical outreach, to renew our ongoing encouragement of congregational giving, particularly among younger people, and to build on joint links with local attractions to build commercial and missional opportunities for visitors and local citizens. We are also encouraged to be bold in communicating the interdependence of missional and commercial activity, recognising that each serves the other, as we work to grow in every way and enable the development of funding and resources to support our future.
The timing of the review has aligned well with our current revisioning work Pentecost to Advent 2023. There is always much going on in the life and ministry of a cathedral and St Albans is no exception. The review team saw that we are a cathedral with a compelling and ambitious agenda and this review has helped us be secure in that direction. At the heart of everything we do are people.
Jo Kelly-Moore | The Dean
Signage
The review reminded us of the continuing importance of taking good care of staff, volunteers, visitors and our worshipping communities. The wellbeing and flourishing of all people is fundamental to who and what we are as a Christian community. We are committed to working with Chapter and the Senior Management Team to incorporate the review’s key findings into our ongoing priorities and work.
Tim Fleming | Chief Operating Officer
What are those sleek monoliths with red accents?
You may have spotted some additions to the Cathedral floor over the last week with the installation of new wayfinding signs. If you haven’t spotted them, don’t worry – that must mean they are subtle and fit in with the space! Along with some new hanging signage in the Welcome Centre, the obvious additions are the free standing totems in the Cathedral itself.
These smart grey obelisks with red trim are part of a larger signage and wayfinding project, kindly sponsored by The Friends of St Albans Cathedral, with the purpose of not just guiding visitors around the Cathedral precincts but also giving them the confidence to explore and enjoy this wonderful building by informing them of where they can go, and what is going on. The totems are magnetic, which allows temporary messaging to be displayed for services and events, thus supporting sidespeople and stewards. As part of this wider project, there will be some external elements being added in the late Autumn – keep your eyes peeled!
William Glendinning | Marketing and Communications Executive
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Opening times
The Cathedral is open daily 8.30am – 5.30pm.
Entry is free
All donations are gratefully received.
Tickets
Book online at www.stalbanscathedral.org, in-person at our Box Office, located in the Cathedral Shop, or call 01727 890290.
For the latest information visit our website and sign up for our What’s On newsletter.
St Albans Cathedral
Sumpter Yard, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 1BY Cathedral Office: 01727 890210
Email: mail@stalbanscathedral.org
www.stalbanscathedral.org
/StAlbansCathedralOfficial
@stalbanscathedral
@StAlbansCath
@stalbanscathedral
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“St Albans Cathedral exists to glorify God and, inspired by the witness of Alban, proclaim Christ’s message of love.”
CBP018023
