The installation of the new Dean of Lichfield on Saturday 21 September was a sensory feast – in some surprising as well as expected ways.
There were the sounds: of all manner of music, a drum fanfare and thunder too. The music was sung by the Cathedral Choir, the Cathedral Chamber Choir and Lichfield Cathedral Young and Youth Voices (Directors Cathy Lamb and Ailsa Cochrane), conducted by Ben Lamb, Director of Music. The organ was played by the Assistant Director of Music, Martyn Rawles. The percussionists were pupils from Lichfield Cathedral School and members of Young Voices, conducted by George R. Worship songs were accompanied by the MusicShare Band. The thunder can be put down to divine intervention.
Sights: of not one but three Lords Lieutenant, (Staffordshire, Shropshire and the County of the West Midlands), the Bishops of Lichfield, Stafford, Shrewsbury and three retired, a robed choir and at one point a robed choirmaster playing a drumkit.
Not forgetting smells: the scent of heavy rainfall.
The new Dean, the Rt Revd Jan Mc Farlane, Lichfield’s first female holder of that post was clearly touched to be back in the cathedral where she was ordained and the county where she was born.
Beyond the senses, the Dean’s sermon fed the imagination with its vivid relating of a encounters train journey in which heaven and earth were brought closer together for some moments.
Dressed in the ‘Convocation Robes’ of Anglican bishops, reflecting her consecration to become Bishop of Repton in 2016, the Rt Revd Janet Elizabeth Mcfarlane walked up the aisle (there is so much in a service of this kind in the Church of England that echoes a marriage) to be presented to the bishop and people, instituted to her office by the bishop, robed in her stole and Dean’s Cope by the canons and then installed (literally placed in her cathedral stall) as Dean of Lichfield by the precentor.
In the midst of these ceremonials, between the institution and the installation, the public welcome was prolonged, warm applause. The Dean was visibly moved.
In her 16-minute sermon, The Dean related the contemporary parable of her train journey experiences travelling to her pre-installation retreat. She took the assembled congregation on the journey with her, through her deft word-sketch describing the young couple she sat with on the train, their self-absorbed exchanges and the book she was reading. The book performed the ice-breaking duties. It was Justin Brierley’s ‘The surprising rebirth of belief in God: why new atheism grew old and secular thinkers are considering Christianity again.’ Even the mention of this book transmitted in the gentlest way the message to the whole cathedral that times were changing and if the times weren’t changing they were about to be changed. The Dean made it feel like an antidote to Dawkins’ ‘God Delusion’.
The Dean’s book, her offer of a snack and the subsequent conversation led unexpectedly to the offer of an impromptu baptism, there on the train, if the catering trolley was able to provide a bottle of water.
The Dean, with her gentleness of demeanour and tone, and her warm, eyes-closed smile had offered comfort to the restless, fidgeting self-obsessed couple. Her deft description and subsequent incisive commentary disturbed in the most hopeful and optimistic way the comfort of those gathered.
Her theme: have many of us forgotten all the benefits of faith? Have we as a society forgotten how faith has benefitted our common, communal life?
Drawing on her parable, she piercingly identified the young couple’s lack of awareness of others and of an apparent moral compass as signs of their deep spiritual hunger.
The dean’s sermon continued:
“A young couple growing up in a world which is materially prosperous, with life expectancy at an all-time high ,but with statistics telling us that we are more unhappy and dissatisfied that we have ever been, and that’s especially true of our young people: a young couple growing up in a world that has tried to airbrush Christianity and God out of the picture; which has managed to convince so many that the big story that has shaped our lives for 2000 years is no longer of relevance; the faith that has led to the creation of hospitals and hospices and insisted on an education for all not just the privileged; tells us that we are bigger than just the survival of the fittest as in the animal kingdom and that we are to care for the least and the lost and that we are to forgive one another when we mess up. To love one another not in a romantic hearts and roses sort of way but with God’s love. A love which is often challenging and difficult which has the power to transform lives.”
This roll-call of contribution and tone-setting for our society was punctuated by several loud rolls of thunder.
Acknowledging that Christians are just fallible human beings and that therefore the church has made mistakes over 2000 years, which has recognised and sought forgiveness for, she continued to list the contributions of the church, from its beginnings in
“….a troublesome backwater of the Roman Empire with a troublesome Rabbi who refused to die, has over the centuries inspired some of the most magnificent buildings ever produced, shaped the imagination of some of the greatest artists, poets, philosophers, composers, given us our legal system, healthcare, education, the foundation of the abolition of slavery, the modern welfare state through an understanding that every single person’s life matters because they are made in the image of God.”
She continued: “In the same way that a goldfish has no awareness that it is swimming in a bowl, we have forgotten that we swim in the sea of the Christian faith and that its basic tenets: ‘love God and love your neighbour as you love yourself,’ contain the keys of a meaningful existence and life in all its fullness, in ways that a self-obsessed, increasingly inward looking, mentally and emotionally fragile selfie world can never do.”
In closing remarks, she declared that “those who study such things say that the tide is turning….. Here in this cathedral as in the churches of the dioceses we need to ready ourselves to look outwards not inwards, to reach out to those like the girl on the train who are deeply restless and gnawingly hungry without quite knowing why. To help build. A better world …. where we can rediscover mystery, hope wonder enchantment and faith.”
Echoing Christ’s welcome for all people, the Dean invited people of faith to support the cathedral, their local churches and to deepen their commitment, warning: “if we don’t use our churches we will lose them.” To those who recognised the values of love, service, inclusivity, community that we seek to live out, please partner with us as we seek to transform our local communities and individual lives and if you are intrigued about the Christian faith, come and seek us out, any of us, those who have heard ourselves called by name as Jesus called Mary that first Easter morning.”
The video of the service can be seen on the cathedral's YouTube channel, while a selection of photos are available on our Flickr feed.
Video feed by JTV: photography Chris Day & Simon Jones