Thank you for being here today, your encouragement and support mean everything. It seems to me that we need more love in our public life and your presence here today demonstrates there is plenty of it here in Leicester/shire.
Arriving at this moment has been a vocational journey for me – starting with June Osborne – pioneer in womens ordained ministry who wondered about cathedral ministry with me; a taste for being a public Christian through community organising with CitizensUK in Nottingham, and this definition of a Cathedral from Albert van den Heuvel, written a number of years ago.
What he says is like a string of multicoloured beads – maybe just notice which one grabs your attention. I hope it may become a future conversation we have.
A sign of pro-existence.
A symbol of diversity in unity.
A Pentecostal laboratory.
A theatre of basic drama.
A temple of dialogue.
A centre of creativity.
An academy of committed information.
A clinic for public exorcism.
An international exchange.
A broadcasting station for the voice of the poor.
A tower of reconciliation.
A motel for pilgrims.
A house of vicarious feasts.
The hut of the Shepherd.
God, rich in mercy, whose light reveals the truth of things… take these words and mediate your mercy and truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Like a bird, each cathedral sings with a slightly different sound.
Here at Leicester Cathedral, what is our sound? What is our call in the quiet woods of the soul? What is our cry above the city… or our day-to-day chirrup? What songs do we sing with others?
What bird might we be?
In Ireland recently I watched 30-40 gold finches, greenfinches, and blue tits compete with a red squirrel for food at the bird table with flashes of colour and synchronised scattering and gathering. In this last week Nigel and I have seen birds common in our childhood like starlings and the thrush – but not golden eagles this time, that graced our last visit to N Wales. What bird might we be?
The New Testament letters address communities of followers of Jesus Christ in a variety of ways. This afternoon we heard them addressed as sisters and brothers, holy partners in a heavenly calling. The First Letter of Peter addresses the 'exiles,' 'the wandering ones' across modern day Turkey, the pare-pide-mois or in Latin, pellegrinos. Pilgrims. Peregrines.
Peregrine falcons received this name because outside of the breeding season they travel very widely. They are not home birds, they are up and out. They are riders of the wind.
I want to explore this identity for a few moments with you this afternoon as I think about who we are as Leicester Cathedral.
Our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures this afternoon reminds us that God is always 'about to do a new thing' .'I am about to do a new thing. Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way on the wilderness and rivers in the desert…' (Isaiah 43.19) God is always on the move, dynamic, and our task is to perceive it, sense it, and discern what God is doing now, so that we can join in, like riding the wind.
The activity of God, God's life and love and newness , is like a deep spring of living water bubbling up in blessing. This is the God about whom we speak here. This life-giving activity of God is our prayer for every visitor, each Minster Community, and every community in this city and county. This Cathedral is about working with others and 'travelling widely' with this hope and belief in God-at-work-in-the-world in our hearts.
The New Testament letter to the Hebrews refers to the tradition's patriarchs Abram, Isaac, Jacob – and lets not forget Sarah following International Women's Day – as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They were sojourners, wanderers, nomads, seeking a homeland, a better country, a heavenly one. Xenoi kai perepidemoi, 'visiting strangers' (Martin Luther), passing travellers. On the move.
Here at the Cathedral, we know all about this as we were exiled from this building for two years – unable to open our doors to visitors, and worshipping in the conference centre. We have enjoyed a homecoming in the last few months and being able to offer renewed hospitality here. I think we detached ourselves from these stones, did things differently, got to know one another better and learnt that God can be trusted through change.
We have been learning that God makes a way forward through the tough and difficult places we experience, providing 'rivers in the desert'. We've seen that through the challenges of a building project. Pilgrim people depend on what their context provides for food and shelter, and they teach us about the life of faith, that there are the resources for life in the context.
Some of you may have walked the Camino in Norther Spain? Each day brings something new – you put on your boots, leave yesterday behind and step out. There is also a lovely reminder in this Isaiah scripture to leave the former things and move on with freedom from the past and what is no longer helpful or weighs us down.
The life of the peregrini – Pilgrimage – is a strong biblical metaphor for our religious life. It speaks of travelling with hope, being open to new possibilities, towards a place of healing and forgiveness. A place for the renewal of energy. A place of blessing.
W.B. Yeats in his poem, 'Sailing to Byzantium' captures something of this beautifully. He describes a far travelled pilgrim who has 'sailed the seas and some – to the holy city of Byzantium'. Here is the pilgrim – 'An aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick..' His heart is sick with desire, 'Gather me into the artifice of eternity'.
'Gather me into the artifice of eternity' like the priests of legend in the Hagia Sophia in 1453 singing the divine liturgy who disappeared into the stones of the building with the sacred vessels as the city changed hands in war.
'Gather me into the artifice of eternity', the very being of God.
Each cathedral sings with a slightly different sound.
Here are the 3 things we know we are about:
Leicester Cathedral is about Worship and offering opportunities to be gathered into and embraced by God in our liturgies, the Word and sacraments. Here we walk with other pilgrims on the spiritual journey: in dialogue, in discipleship activities among children and adults, with learning, and education and musical training designed for open hearts and minds. It is important that our different heritages and cultures are explored and expressed in community and in worship.
Leicester Cathedral is about Welcome for all the place pilgrims who visit, many to visit the tomb of King Richard III interred here in 2015 after famously being uncovered in the car park. We are in the business of welcoming each one.
In my imagination this cathedral has no walls (or maybe glass walls if the place isn't going to fall down). It is open, accessible, free flowing as people pass in and out and owned by the city, county and wider diocese, where everyone feels they can belong and be at home. That will mean new audiences and being a place where all identities and cultures see themselves and feel seen. It applies to theological identity, neighbourhood identity, cultural identity, differently embodied identities. We need to sing with a 'slightly different sound' that is Leicester/Shire.
In my experience, no pilgrim or peregrine is very quiet and Leicester Cathedral is about Witness.
As well as being confidently Christian and talking about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have things to say about the world as it should be. Jesus' distinctive teaching was about the Kingdom of God, where people really do love their neighbours and build a common life where people are not in debt to one another.
Alicia Garza - Principal at the Black Futures Lab, co-creator of the BLM – emphasises the importance of working with people and building a base that is larger than the people we feel comfortable with to bring about the changes we want to see. She reminds us that homogeneity is a problem in social movements. This will be important to me as Dean both inside and outside the Cathedral.
We also have lots to say about the stories of Leicester's past which will be voiced in our new Heritage and Learning Centre (opening this year). We want to make connections to the unfolding story of today in such an interesting city and county.
God is always 'about to do a new thing'. The future is open. At Leicester Cathedral we are a pilgrim institution on the move. We are spiritual peregrini and a place of pilgrimage.
In this city and county in the 2020s we have a unique sound. What is it and what will it be? What is our call in the quiet woods of the soul? What is our cry above the city… or our day-to-day chirrup? What songs will we sing with others?
The Very Revd Karen Rooms, Saturday 9 March 2024
