CHAIRMAN S e BULLETIN JULY 2014

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1 CHAIRMAN S e BULLETIN JULY 2014 NEW CANON TREASURER The Cathedral has announced the appointment of the Reverend Stephen Fielding MA as the new Canon Treasurer. As a member of the Cathedral s Leadership Team, he will play a key role in implementing the Cathedral s vision, with line responsibility for our financial and human resources, fundraising and commercial activities. He will also take on the statutory role of Cathedral Administrator. The Reverend Stephen Fielding (62) is currently a Team Rector in the Ash and Quin Valleys Team in the Diocese of St Albans. He joined the Ministry Team there after a curacy in the Welwyn team, and a career first as a lawyer and subsequently as a private banker, running a part of Coutts & Co. For three years, from , he led the Appeal at Ripon Theological College, Cuddesdon, which raised over 7 million for a new chapel, lecture theatre and residential accommodation. Since 2003, he has been practising as a mediator - assisting parties to commercial, or family disputes, to find a settlement with a special focus on inheritance disputes. He is a door tenant in Pump Court legal chambers in London. Stephen is married to Angela, and they have four grown up children two boys and two girls and one granddaughter. Angela was involved for many years with the Citizens Advice Bureau as a volunteer. She is currently a spiritual director, and a ministerial development consultant, in the St Albans Diocese. She likes the theatre, reading, and being with friends. For most of their married life, Stephen and Angela lived in Harpenden, with a very happy spell in the Peak District in the mid 80 s. Stephen Fielding s hobbies include cricket, playing the piano and the organ, and languages. His childhood was spent in Potters Bar. He went to school in London and read law at Christ Church, Oxford, with a gap year in France and Italy. Stephen says about his appointment, This is a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the development of Coventry Cathedral. As a mediator, I am hugely committed to its ministry of reconciliation. I look forward with enthusiasm to leading its short-and long-term fund raising initiatives to build a substantial endowment and to fund necessary improvements in the Cathedral s fabric. 1

2 The Dean, the Very Reverend John Witcombe, commented, I am delighted that Stephen Fielding is coming to join the ministry team in the Cathedral, as Canon Treasurer. He comes with a wealth of experience from the world of business, which now combines happily with his vocation as a priest and a mediator. He will be joining us as a residentiary canon, with a particular responsibility for our strategic development and fundraising. He will be joining us in October. The Right Reverend Dr. Christopher Cocksworth, the Bishop of Coventry, added, its wonderful news for the Cathedral and the Diocese, that Stephen Fielding will be joining us as Canon Treasurer. Stephen brings great gifts in administration and finance, together with a real love of Cathedral life, and a strong commitment to reconciliation. I look forward to welcoming Stephen and his wife to the Coventry Diocese, and to Stephen's ministry among us. A PROM FOR ALL Tickets are now on sale for the Friends 80th Anniversary Prom for All Concert in the Cathedral, on Saturday 27 September commencing at 6.00 pm. Conducted by Paul Leddington Wright, it will feature Saint Michael s Singers, the Choristers, the Cathedral Orchestra and Children from local schools, plus you the audience, in a rousing and popular programme, including: Pomp and Circumstance, Agnus Dei and Songs from the First World War. The Bishop hopes that every Deanery in the Diocese will be represented, to celebrate the Cathedral s Patronal Festival in style. We want to raise the roof and raise 5,000 for the Cathedral Choir and Music - as well as enjoying ourselves. Flags and refreshments will be available! Buy your tickets from: from the Cathedral Shop or the Welcome Desk on-line by phone on Put the date in your diary and invite your Friends to join us. 2

3 :2+"<$/+-.0"%'"*%E+-1$4"*,12+.$,(""7$+0+-1","""!"#$%&"'%$"!(()",1"*%E+-1$4"*,12+.$,("%-" G,15$.,4"HI12"G+71+&A+$"HJKL",1"M7&" *%&+",-."$,/0+"12+"$%%'",-." +-3%4","$%50/-6"7$%6$,&&+"%'" %$82+01$,(",-."82%$,("&50/8" /-8(5./-69" " :$,./1/%-,(";$/1/02"<%(=":5-+0>"" /-",(("/10"6(%$4)" *% "A49" ""#,5("B+../-61%-"C$/621" ""D+$$4";+,5&%-1" <+,15$/-6"9" "" " ""*%E+-1$4"*,12+.$,("*2%$/01+$0" """*%E+-1$4",-."C,$F/8=02/$+""""""" """"""""#$/&,$4"G82%%("*2%/$0" :/8=+109"NKO",-."NKJ""PNKH",-."NQ"8%-8+00/%-R" %-S(/-+",1"FFFT8%E+-1$48,12+.$,(T%$6T5=" A4"72%-+"%-"JKMIM"OUHLUM",-." '$%&"12+"*%E+-1$4"*,12+.$,("G2%7"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" <(,60",-."$+'$+02&+-10",E,/(,A(+)" The above striking, and patriotic, photograph is taken from one of the Cathedral s five Swedish Windows, by Einar Forseth. The images include the red rose of England, the Welsh daffodil, and the lion and the thistle of Scotland, together with the Royal coat-of-arms. 3

4 GLAD TO BE CALLED TO COVENTRY The Reverend Tulo Raistrick has recently been appointed Vicar of St Barbara's, Earlsdon. He shares his first impressions and reflections on his move from London to the Coventry Diocese. Having lived in South-West London for the last twenty years, it felt like a big step for my wife, Sarah, and I to move to Earlsdon, in Coventry. Our first impressions and experiences have been wonderfully positive. The church and the wider community have been generous and hospitable, the Diocese likewise. Non-church goers have stopped me in the street to introduce themselves, a number of the local allotment gardeners have donated plants to replenish our garden. The local press even put me on the front page, which I assumed must mean trouble, until I read the article and discovered it was warm and positive. It has been great to come to a City and Diocese with such a strong emphasis on peace and reconciliation. I lived in Soweto in South Africa for the last three years of the apartheid regime, working amongst township youths in leadership development, and experienced firsthand the significance of justice and reconciliation in those troubled years. On returning to the UK, for many years I worked for the Christian relief and development agency, Tearfund helping churches around the world to become catalysts for change in their communities. I had the privilege of seeing churches in Burma, Bolivia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Pakistan and elsewhere, standing up for justice, and being peace-builders within their communities. So being connected with a City and Diocese, whose own history is one of reconciliation and peace building, is a real joy for me. I m enjoying the opportunity that the first few months of a new post provides, to listen to people, to hear their views and insights, and to work with people in discerning how God has been at work in the church and the community over the years, and in what ways He may continue to do so in the future. It is certainly a privilege, as well as a challenge, and a calling, for which I m immensely grateful. 4

5 OUT & ABOUT Fair Trading, Coventry's specialist fair trade shop, has reopened in the Cathedral's Gift Shop on St Michael's Way. Bishop s Council has decided to bring part of Offa House, the former Diocesan Retreat House, back into use as a place of prayer. Last year, Offa House was put up for sale, but failed to reach the reserve. The new use is part of a plan to develop centres of prayer and spirituality throughout the Diocese. Brenda Dammers, widow of the Very Reverend Horace Dammers, Canon of Coventry Cathedral before becoming Dean of Bristol Cathedral, died last month after a short illness. Brenda was a Member of Saint Michael s Singers. The illustrated catalogue of the acclaimed Golden Jubilee Exhibition Journey into the Light has been revised and republished. It is available from the Cathedral Shop priced at It s an accessible and powerful guide to understanding the story behind the Cathedral s art treasures and the artists who created them. In the autumn a Work Club is to open, on Wednesday mornings, at Bardsley House. Volunteers are required who have skills to support unemployed people, by helping them improve their computer skills (needed for job searching) and writing CVs and job applications. The Cathedral Reconciliation Team have launched a new Schools for Peace Skola za Mir project, which aims to bring young people together, to share their experiences of conflict and peace building. The schools initially involved in the peace project, are Clinton Primary School, Kenilworth, and Brčanska Malta School, Tuzla and Nikola Tesla, and Novi Sad schools in Bosnia Hercegovina, Serbia. The Archbishops Council has submitted a petition to Parliament to amend the HS2 Bill to safeguard the treatment of burial grounds and human remains during any construction work. The award winning Multicultural Book, Craft & Food Fair will once again be celebrating Coventry s diversity, on Saturday 7th June, between am and 4.00 pm. outside Coventry Central Library in Smithford Way. Over 20 stalls will be selling books, CDs, musical instruments, crafts and arte-facts from around the world, as well as offering food and refreshments. In the afternoon, there will be performances of free music, dance and entertainment. The Bishop of Coventry, in his Address to the Diocesan Synod on 24th June, reviewed the strategic development of the Diocese, within the context of the life of the Church of England. It s available as a pdf on the Diocesan Website. The Bishop has asked the Dean to head a small task group, to plan the celebrations and commemorations of the 100th Anniversary of the revived Diocese of Coventry in

6 MASTERS OF THE BAROQUE Saint Michael s Singers are performing their summer concert in All Saints Church Leamington Spa, this Saturday 5th July The Programme includes Vivaldi's Gloria, and music by Gabrieli, Monteverdi and Purcell. Tickets to the Friends of Coventry Cathedral are 10.00, which will include a concert programme and a reserved seat. Tickets for this special offer must be booked from Jill Pacey or tickets@saintmichaelssingers.org FOUR THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW? 1. The day after the Coventry Blitz, demolition crews had to be prevented from pulling down Coventry Cathedral's tower, which had survived the bombing, because they didn't realise that it had been leaning for at least 100 years. 2. Graham Sutherland's work, Christ in Glory, was said to be the largest church tapestry in the world when it was made for the new Coventry Cathedral in With more than 900 different colours, it and is guaranteed for 500 years. 3. Glass painter John Thornton, creator of York Minster's Great East Window - the finest medieval stained glass in England - was born in Coventry and is said to have created the original glass, fragments of which were saved from the clerestory windows of the old St Michael s Cathedral. 4. Coventry is the only British City to have lost two Cathedrals - the Cathedral and Priory of St Mary demolished in 1539 (the only Cathedral destroyed in the Reformation) and the Cathedral of St Michael (the only English City to have a Cathedral destroyed in the Second World War) CELEBRATING CENTENARIES Make sure that you put the date in your Diary - the Friends AGM 2014 will be on Saturday, afternoon 25th October, followed by a Cream Tea and a joyful celebration of Centenaries, and some less well-known Anniversaries. The soiree will gallop through the ages, and recall in words and music some of the great events of our past we commemorate in It will be an entertaining event of sheer delight - not to be missed. FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND NOW PINTEREST Interested in following the life and ministry of the Cathedral in the social media? You now have three options. You can either follow Coventry Cathedral on Facebook.com/coventrycathedral or log on to twitter@covcathedral or find ideas that inspire you, on the new Pinterest site. Happy networking! Andrew L Paine Chairman The Friends of Coventry Cathedral Charity Number chairman@friendsofcoventrycathedral.org.uk 6