NEWS...

Welcome

The People of the Cathedral Church of St Thomas of Canterbury and their clergy welcome you to Old Portsmouth.  This Church of England Cathedral, as well as being the mother church of the Diocese, is also your parish church.  In addition to the Sunday and mid-week services in the Cathedral there are a large number of other activities which may be of interest to you.

Meetings are held throughout the year to welcome newcomers into the parish.

The latest pewsheet, containing details of services and events for the week, notices and news, is available here. 

The February Congregational Newsletter is now available, please click here.

This year's Annual Reports are available here 

This year's Annual Accounts are available here

Simplified Annual Accounts are available here

The minutes of the APCM held on 26th April are available here.

Finances for the important briefing on the finances please click here.

If you would like to discuss the 2010 budget or how you might be able to help the Cathedral, the Chapter Clerk, would be happy to hear from you, jonathan.lloyd@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk or 9289 2961.

These documents  are published in Adobe® Acrobat® Reader format.  You can download the latest free version here 

News

Our new Residentiary Canon and Precentor, The Reverend Nicholas Biddle, will be installed at Evensong on Sunday, 7th February. All are welcome at the service and reception in the Nave. We look forward to working with him and welcoming him as a member of our Community.

Sunyani Link:  Bishop Festus will be visiting 4th-10th February and with us on Sunday, 7th February. There is a wonderful opportunity to meet informally with him at the Deanery for a 'Bring and Share Lunch' at 12.30pm.  Please sign the notice on the Welcome Desk, or contact Bruce Carpenter, 9229 4128 or Marion Syms, 01243 373409 if you are able to join us. All welcome

Haiti— a cheque for £866.96 (which includes Gift Aid), from retiring collections in January, has been sent to Christian Aid to help disaster relief following the recent earthquake. Thank you so much.

Summer Fair There will be a meeting on Thursday, 11th February 7.30-9.30pm in Becket Hall for all those interested in helping with this year’s Fair.  See February Newsletter for details.

Lent Lunches of home-made soup and bread will be available on Wednesdays in Becket Hall from 12.15pm-1.30pm commencing on Ash Wednesday, 17th February. Donations in aid of the Bishop’s Lent Appeal. Individuals or groups are invited to take responsibility for a particular Wednesday. Please contact Liz  Snowball.  

Offices to Let, Party and Conference Facilities.  Please click here for details of our facilities in Cathedral House, St. Thomas's Street.

Palm Crosses We should be grateful to receive any palm crosses you may have from last year.   These will be used to help produce the ash  for the Ash  Wednesday liturgy. Please place them in the basket on the Welcome Desk.

The Cathedral’s Choirs will be on half term holiday from 12th-20th February inclusive.

Southeast Transept Remedial decorative work will take place in the week commencing 15th February.

Cathedral Social Skittles Evening Friday, 12th March 7.30pm at the Royal Maritime Club, Queen Street.  £10 per person including basket meal.  Tickets on sale from the Cathedral Shop.  Come and join in the fun.

Aside: A workshop on Prayer  Saturday, 27th February 10.00am-4.00pm at St John’s Cathedral.  An opportunity to explore new ways of praying or to deepen your practice of prayer led by Canon Dr Peter Lippiett.  Packed lunch required.

EVENTS

Details of concerts are available here.

Thursday, 18th February 7.30pm Cathedral Club meets in Becket Hall.  Pat McIntosh, will talk about her creation and hero Gil Cunningham and his friends.  Visitors welcome £2.

Friday, 26th February 10.30am-12noon Needlecraft Coffee Morning in Becket Hall in aid of the Women’s World Day of Prayer.  Raffle, needlecraft stall, preserves, cakes and the Cathedral Handbell ringers.  Entrance 50p to include coffee and biscuits.

15th – 27th  February -  Exhibition -  Flood: Facing Up to Rising Sea Levels Joint project between RIBA Building Futures and the Institution of Civil Engineers scrutinising the current practice of coastal flood management in the urban context.

PARISH GROUPS

Mothers and Toddlers

This group which is very important not only in enabling mutual support amongst parents (usually Mums) of young children but also in introducing them to our Cathedral life and worship, continues to be well supported with about 25 families on the books. They meet on Wednesdays in term time at 2pm in the Cathedral for an informal act of worship followed by play and a cup of tea.

Wednesday afternoons  2.00 - 2.15 starting in St Thomas's Chapel

and then 2.15 - 3.15 tea/coffee and play in Cathedral House.

Cathedral Sunday School

A Sunday School for 0-7s meets during the 9.30am service on the 2nd and 4th Sundays in the month during term time in the North Cloister School Room.  The children are invited to come for a blessing during the Administration of Communion and then to stay for the remainder of the service.

Cathedral Youth Club

The Youth Club is not meeting at present but anyone who would like to be involved in the Youth Club (either as a member or a helper) is very welcome to contact the Cathedral Office on 023 9282 3300.

The Cathedral Club meets on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays in term time from 7.30pm-9.00pm.  Talks and/or slide-shows are given, on a wide variety of subjects, with speakers from round and about the Portsmouth area.  Annual membership, payable in September is £8 but visitors are always welcome at £2 per evening. 

St Thomas's Parish Choir often has vacancies for child and adult members.  The choir sings weekly at the 9.30am service on Sundays and with the Cathedral Choir at special services during the year.  Rehearsals are held at the Cathedral on Fridays from 7.00pm to  8.00pm.   For further details or to arrange an informal audition, contact the Cathedral Sub-Organist, Marcus Wibberley,  by email or telephone 023 9289 2966.

Voluntary Guides and Welcomers

The Guides and Welcomers are the first point of contact for many people who visit our historic building.   They work closely together to give the visitor a friendly, helpful and memorable reception.  

Welcomers sit at the desk inside the south door.   Here they give an initial friendly welcome and direct visitors to the appropriate office, to the duty Guide, or into the church where they may light a candle, reflect quietly, or say a prayer.    Visitors who would like to learn more about the Cathedral are handed a leaflet which is available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Japanese; it shows dates of the major events which influenced the building.  

A "4th Edition - 2004" of "The Guides' Guide" was funded by a generous donation from a charitable trust which covered the entire production costs. Published by the Portsmouth Cathedral Chapter, this edition has been completely revised by the Research Group who are continuing their important work by issuing in-depth papers on specific artefacts or developments within the Cathedral.

The 'Ministry of Welcome' is an important and vital part of the daily life of the Cathedral. All the volunteers are fully trained.   If you enjoy meeting people and would like to know more about becoming a volunteer Guide or Welcomer please contact the Cathedral Office.

Intercessions Group

The Monday Morning Intercessions Group meets in the Cathedral from 10.00am to 10.30am.  We welcome not only people who are called to a regular commitment but also those who want to come occasionally.

Bell Ringing

PORTSMOUTH CATHEDRAL BELLS

Eight bells were hung in the Cathedral in 1703, a gift from Admiral Sir George Rooke, then Member of Parliament for Portsmouth.

On 31 July 1749 a full peal of 5,040 changes of Grandsire Triples was rung and is recorded on a peal board in the ringing room.

John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough attended to the bells and re-hung them with new clappers in 1912. The old clappers are now contained in an oakframe made from timber from the old bell frame and are on display in the ringing room.

In 1957 two more bells were cast and hung by John Taylor - bringing the ring up to ten bells whose lovely sound we hear today.

The TENOR bell weighs 25 cwt 2 qtrs (1,295 kgs). The inscription on it says:

'We good people all to prayer do call. We honour to King and brides joy do bring. Good Tydings we tell and ring the Death's knell. Recast by the Parishoners.'

PEALS (5,000 or more changes) are rung on special occasions - such as Maundy Thursday 1998 when the Queen distributed the Royal Maundy in this Cathedral.

The Cathedral Ringers also ring for Sunday services, weddings, blessings, and the New Year, and quarter peals in memoriam and in celebration. There have been several successful peal attempts - a sequence of over 5,000 changes without a repeat of a change, which takes approximately 3 hours to complete without a break!

Bell Augmentation Appeal I

Last year a campaign was launched by the Portsmouth Cathedral Society of Change Ringers to further augment the bells to twelve (again by the addition of two trebles), the maximum number of bells commonly hung for change ringing. It is relatively unusual for a Church of this stature to have only ten bells and the augmentation will bring Portsmouth in line with many prominent towers in the local vicinity including Winchester and Guildford Cathedrals and Christchurch Priory. The Cathedral’s bells are considered by many ringers to be some of the best in the South of England and their augmentation will certainly make them one of the finest rings of twelve of their weight in the country.

The overall cost of this project is £35,000 of which we have already secured in excess of £29,000. Fortunately, we almost immediately managed to secure two donors for the new bells which significantly helped the funding that was needed to complete the project and we recently secured a grant of £4,500 from the Winchester and Portsmouth Guild of Church Bell Ringers.

The two new bells were cast by Taylor Eayre & Smith Ltd at their foundry in Loughborough on Thursday 17th September 2009 and are now on display in the Cathedral before they are hoisted into the tower in early March.

We are always on the lookout for new recruits and we are pleased to welcome visitors to the Tower on our Thursday practice nights at 7.30pm – meet outside the North Door of the Cathedral.

The practices on Thursday evenings and Sunday service ringing are organised by the Tower Captain/Ringing Master. Ringers and visitors are welcome to the Tower by prior arrangement. For further information please contact Sadie Harrison on 023 9221 9377.

Portsmouth Cathedral Handbell Group

A small group of seven meets every Thursday evening in the Cathedral. It as played at Cathedral Coffee Mornings and at a founder member's funeral - a great accolade. If you are interested in joining this group contact Cathedral Office 023 9282 3300.

Flower Arranging

The Cathedral Flower Guild needs more recruits: Could this be you?   Arranging flowers is part of our offering of service and worship.   It is also a very relaxing and enjoyable way to spend a morning.   Most of us are complete amateurs and with help from our team we have managed to produce some pretty good work (or so we have been told!). If you can only arrange at Easter, Harvest and Christmas - welcome. If you can be a member of one of the three teams who arrange flowers every six weeks or so - even better.

We are grateful to Audrey Whitehead and the Needlecraft Group for organising a coffee morning each year with all proceeds going to the Flower Guild.   We are self-funded and rely on events and donations so the group's contribution is most welcome.  

The Easter Lily book and donations in memory of loved ones enables us to fill the Cathedral with lilies and visitors come specially to see (and smell) them.   If you would like to remember an anniversary during the year, a floral arrangement can be made specially - contact the Cathedral Office.

During the Summer we hope to use flowers from around the world - look out for some pretty unusual flowers!  

Further information from Cathedral Office tel: 023 9289 2968

or email: rosemary.fairfax@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk

Cathedral Needlecraft Group

The Needlecraft group meets once a month, usually the first Thursday, in Cathedral House from 2.30pm to 4.00pm. 

The aim of these meetings is to extend the hand of friendship, welcoming new people to the group and exchanging ideas amongst those who enjoy sewing, embroidery, knitting and crochet.  For those who are unable to attend our meetings, we pass on and collect work. 

During 2008, through Coffee Mornings and their stall at the Christmas Fair, the Needlecraft Group raised £2,241.51

Without the generous gifts of material, wools, etc. from the congregation and kind friends, we would be unable to continue our work.  Surprise bags are always being left for us - many thanks.  Our prayers are for your continued support to make these events successful.

1st PORTSMOUTH CUBS

The Cubs meet on Wednesdays evenings in Cathedral House.

Brownies

The Brownies meet on Monday evenings in Cathedral House.

For more information contact Joanne Lear, through Cathedral Office 023 9282 3300.

12th Portsmouth Cathedral Guides

The Guides meet on Monday evenings in Cathedral House.

If anyone is interested in joining the Guides they can contact Judith Burr, Guide Guider, through Cathedral Office 023 9282 3300.

Think about the things that are true and honourable and right and
pure and beautiful and respected…And the God who gives peace will be with you.
PHILIPPIANS 4:8-9