There are only a few days left to have a final look at the imposing ‘Soup of Souls’ artwork by Pete Codling in the Nave. These images have drawn in a number of people and have influenced the atmosphere and the impact that the Cathedral has had for many visitors and worshippers as they arrive, through the changing liturgical seasons they have been with us for over the past six months. The Nave will feel very different at first once they go.
Read MoreIt may seem paradoxical to claim that beauty is one of the most neglected features of our age because we are surrounded by so many images, both on paper and in electronic form that tell us what is fashionable and what it is for something to look ‘right’. Yet most of this presentation in the media has no depth, meaning or purpose to it: most of the images reflect trends that our society could reverse overnight if they were regarded as no longer cutting edge. Most of the images, if not actually harmful in promoting a certain view of the human body, are nearly always presented to sell products and make money: they do not point beyond themselves to a deeper truth and goodness.
Read MoreI once said hello to Bill Nighy on Jermyn Street. I recognised his face, but realised too late that I didn’t actually know him. To his credit he smiled back and said hello. This must happen to him all the time. With the radio there is a little more anonymity, but some voices are immediately recognisable, such as Moira Stewart, Linda Snell from The Archer’s, or our own Angela Tilby leading the daily service.
Read MoreThe Bible, and especially the Psalms, sometimes uses the image of storm and heat for God. Psalm 18 talks about God ‘flying on the wings of the storm’ to rescue us, with lightning bursting from the ‘brightness of his presence.’ The prophets speak of God as being like a refiner’s fire or sun of righteousness.
Read MoreI’ve just celebrated a significant birthday. My mother complained that as she was going into labour, and after giving birth, no one was interested in her or me. It was the greatest achievement in her life - I was late and it was a difficult birth - yet it paled into insignificance with the small step for man and giant leap for mankind.
Read MoreThe parable of the Good Samaritan is so over-used, even in a relatively secular society, that it is often very difficult to get beyond our familiarity with it and see its message afresh.
When asked to imagine ourselves in the position of the Samaritan, we often think of the scene in the following way: a poor person is sitting at the side of the road, bleeding after having been attacked. Of course we would help any such person, we tell ourselves. Yet we should ask ourselves what that person by the side of the road looks like. I think it is quite likely that he or she is someone we regard as respectable or acceptable, someone who looks quite similar to ourselves, someone we want to help because we can see them as an obviously innocent victim whose situation is in no way their fault.
Read MoreWe have reached the time of year when we are saying a number of goodbyes, from choir members to our outgoing Chapter Clerk, Peter Sanders. Such occasions are poignant and an occasion for grateful thanksgiving – but also for reflection on how the life of the church has a continuity that does not depend on particular individuals. After the summer holidays our choirs will be back with new members, and if all goes well next Thursday we will be begin the process of appointing a successor to Peter. I write this in the knowledge that it has recently been announced who is taking on the role I left to come to Portsmouth!
Read MoreLast Sunday evening in his sermon ‘Understanding vulnerability: a path to personal and spiritual growth’, Dr Kevin O’Shea, Consultant Psychiatrist, talked about how vulnerability is the essence of the incarnation, God becoming human in the form of Jesus. Dr O’Shea also noted that it was the essence of charity and community. I have been thinking about this a lot over this past week and wondered if today’s highlights could explore these ideas a bit more.
Read MoreThis week we have welcomed hundreds of people to the Cathedral. They have come to hear and experience music of many styles, but most specifically music in the context of worship or at the very least music framed and enhanced by our architectural space and its special nature as a house of prayer.
Read MoreTrinity Sunday marks the moment when the Church moves into ordinary time as the great 50 days of Easter has come to an end. It is the day when all preachers try to explain the inexplicable. Justo Gonzalez, a prominent Hispanic theologian once said, "Trinity is a mystery, not a puzzle. You try to solve the puzzle, you stand in awe before a mystery." The world could do with more standing in awe than sniping from side-lines.
Read More“Ordinary Time resumes”
On the Monday after Pentecost, a note in the liturgical calendar and on our Music List here, says ‘Ordinary Time resumes’. We go back to the liturgical colour green for the long stretch of the summer through to November. Green is the colour of ‘Ordinary time’, the colour of growth as our faith grows and deepens after the great cycles of the Christmas and Easter mysteries.
Read MoreThis year’s D-Day 75 commemorations happen to be taking place in between the feasts of Ascension and Pentecost. In recent years this ten day period has become the focus of a global prayer movement called ‘Thy Kingdom Come’. Across the Diocese of Portsmouth there will be ecumenical prayer meetings every day, open to all, in a variety of locations. Concluding the ten days of prayer on Pentecost Sunday (9th June) will be The Big Prayer Picnic in the grounds of Portchester Castle, 1.00pm to 4.00pm (picnicking is at 2.30pm, when the main prayer and worship event begins).
Read MoreThis week has something of the ‘calm before the storm’ about it, at least in the liturgical, worshipping and diary of the cathedral and it’s community.
We thank our superb visiting choir, Cantus who regularly sing in Cathedral’s across the country. We are delighted they are here to sing our services this weekend as it is the start of our own choirs’ half term break.
Read MoreJesus’ command to ‘love one another’ is so familiar to us that we almost do not bother to think about the radical consequences of what it means. In contemporary society the word ‘love’ has come to be so associated with the pull of emotion that the we imagine 'loving one another' means 'loving people who like us', which ultimately implies a narcissistic self love of our own reflection in which we love those who are like us.
Read MoreChristian Aid Week starts today, so I thought I would highlight the work the charity has done over the last 70+ years. The charity was founded in 1945 by British and Irish churches, with the aim of helping refugees after WWII. Since then they have provided short and long-term aid relief, raised awareness of the injustice in our world, and championed people’s rights.
Read MoreOne of Portsmouth’s oldest buildings and one of its newest small businesses are teaming up for a Rum Festival in Portsmouth Cathedral on the evening of May 11th.
Celebrating the best of local, national and international Rum, and featuring live music, a Rum Shack and food to buy on site. This promises to be an amazing event in unique surroundings.
Read MoreThis week in the Cathedral we will be both looking forward and looking back. From tomorrow (Monday) until next Sunday, we will have a display in the Welcome Area put together by the Portsmouth and Winchester Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers. The display outlines the way the Guild over the past four years rang bells across this diocese, and the diocese of Winchester, to commemorate those who served and fell in the first World War. It also highlights the way bells were rung between 1914 and 1919 as forces left for the front, and losses were mourned, and at last peace was announced and celebrated.
Read MoreI was installed as a Residentiary Canon here on Easter Sunday evening in 2014 so there is a lovely completeness that I am also leaving at Easter five years later, and what a five years it has been! I have loved my time here and have grown to see Portsmouth, both the City and Cathedral, as home. But part of the nature of being a Christian is responding to God’s call and so in doing that I am now heading to the Isle of Wight.
Read MoreHeard on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this week: ‘The French people could have seen the Notre Dame fire as a story of despair and destruction, but instead are seeing it as a story of resurrection and renewal.’ This was not a ‘Thought for the Day’ by our Holy Week and Easter preacher Canon Angela Tilby (to whom grateful thanks are due for her profound and eloquent series of addresses) but the comments of a secular reporter.
Read MoreIn the End, God…
The Christian faith is in decline in Britain with a majority claiming to have no religion. This year’s Holy Week talks and sermons by Canon Angela Tilby will address the reasons for this loss of faith and explore what the cross and resurrection might mean today for those who persist in believing - and for those who would like to believe.
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