The Cathedral of the Holy and Undivided Trinity Bristol
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The Cathedral of the Holy and Undivided Trinity Bristol Further particulars for the position of Canon Chancellor May 2018 Confidential From the Dean The Very Revd Dr David Hoyle It is Bristol; it is not Barchester. You may think you know about cathedral ministry; you may need to think again. Yes, of course, this is an extraordinary, inspiring building. The music is breath-taking, the worship can be glorious. There is all the benefit (and the proper challenge) of working in a happy and high-functioning collegiate community. There is also, though, one of the country’s great cities and an ambitious diocese, in the midst of a very significant transition. There is a new commitment to social justice and some hard conversations around the old wounds of transatlantic slavery. There is a major fabric programme. There is a deep seriousness about governance and management, but an absolute determination to set hope and faith at the heart of our life. We look for a colleague, a Canon Chancellor, who can share that commitment, help us to build on success. Above all, we want a colleague who can help us to be focussed on our task and still demonstrably enjoy the privilege of working here. The detail follows and there is plenty of opportunity and challenge. The role of the Canon Chancellor is actually quite simple. The Precentor helps us to pray, the Chancellor helps us to follow Christ. We have done some good things, but we want to do better in encouraging people to join us and to grow in faith and hope. We want members of the cathedral community to be more effective as ambassadors for Christ, confident and engaged. We want to see more children doing more in the building, believing it to be theirs. We want students to find generosity of heart and clarity of mind here. We want visitors to learn more and the city and diocese to know this is their place too. We hope you will find questions answered in what follows. If there is more you want to know, we would be delighted to hear from you. I am not much of an enthusiast for straplines; we need all of the gospel, for all of the world, but there is a phrase we use quite often, it comes from St John. Come and see. Yours ever, 2 Requirement The Crown, working with the Bishop of Bristol and the Dean, will appoint a Canon Chancellor to Bristol Cathedral, to take office in the autumn. The Canon Chancellor will have oversight of our life as a community and help us realise our ambition as a place of invitation and welcome. In particular (s)he will sustain the life of our various congregations and encourage those unfamiliar with our life to join us, teaching and guiding us all, as we try to be disciples of Christ. The Canon Chancellor will have oversight of our talented Education Officers, our Cathedral Chaplain, and of our work with visitors and volunteers; (s)he will also be committed to our engagement with social justice. The Canon Chancellor is a member of Chapter and shares in the duties of governance. The Diocese of Bristol At the time of writing, we await the announcement of the name of the next Bishop of Bristol. That person will begin episcopal ministry just as this post is filled. The City of Bristol sits right in one corner of a diocese that stretches along the M4 corridor, extending to Swindon through South Gloucestershire and North Wiltshire. It therefore has two major urban centres and a significant rural ‘heart’. There are 165 parishes and 69 church schools. The Diocesan Strategy, Creating Connections, urges us to make connections with God, with each other and with our communities. The cathedral is committed to this strategy and to the priorities within it: making disciples, growing leaders, engaging younger generations and encouraging generosity. Our strategy document highlights where we deliver against the Diocesan priorities. 3 The City of Bristol Bristol is the largest city in the South West and the cathedral is situated on College Green, at the centre of this modern, vibrant and diverse city. The city has much to celebrate and enjoy – with a vigorous business and cultural life and a strong festival tradition. Originally a trading and merchant port it has become a centre for aerospace, financial and business services, creative industries, distribution and retail. There are two major universities in the city, and the BBC has a significant presence here. There is a very lively arts and music scene and Bristol is something of a foodie’s paradise. The city is diverse with many different ethnicities and faith groups, and there is a strong culture of activism on the environmental, social and political agendas. At the cathedral we encounter this all the time, as College Green (our precinct) is the centre of political protest in the city; City Hall is on the western boundary. This has given us a unique insight into the needs and concerns of locals and has opened up new areas of ministry; clergy and staff have supported several multi-faith vigils following terror attacks in recent years, including one after the Orlando shootings (for the LGBTQI community). Bristol is anti-Brexit and we have seen a lot of demonstrating in the wake of the referendum, and many anti-Trump rallies. The far-right and the far-left are active in the city. This dynamic reflects the reality that Bristol, which has much to offer, is also a place of division and frustration. There are significant, deep seated, areas of social deprivation and the city acknowledges that too many of its children live in poverty and that access to higher education, in a city rich in provision, is far too patchy. The city and cathedral have an awkward relationship with our past and there is an energetic debate about the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade in which the cathedral is engaged. We see this contested history in our own fabric; windows and memorials to slave owning families, but also the memorials of those who took a stand on the issue. There is the challenge too of modern forms of slavery. 4 Bristol Cathedral Strategy The cathedral has been a Christian presence in the city for nearly 900 years. We published our own strategy Come and See in 2017. ‘Our mission is to proclaim to every audience that there is one God and one hope for us all.’ It focusses on the challenge to be bolder in Worship, Word and Witness. In particular we want to Reach out to the city and make people welcome. Welcome more people into worship Develop the work we do in helping people to be disciples of Christ Build on the efforts of our Education Officers Encourage young people and families to join our community To be more effective in promoting justice and peace – addressing the injustices and inequalities in our city and communities Our strategy is ambitious and will be demanding to deliver. This is a cathedral with a tight budget and small staff team. In a large and vibrant city we have to reach out and be bold and ‘punch above our weight’. See https://bristol-cathedral.co.uk/about-us/come-and-see-2017-2027-cathedral-strategy-and-fabric- programme/ History The story of Bristol begins with the founding of an Augustinian community c.1140. The abbey was handed over to Henry VIII’s commissioners in 1539 and was closed. In 1542 Henry founded the Diocese of Bristol, the abbey church became the Cathedral of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, and one of the monks became the first Bishop of Bristol (Paul Bush). The Bishopric and Diocese were poor and the boundaries changed a lot over the centuries. It was only in the nineteenth century that the modern boundaries, which included the rapidly growing city of Swindon, took shape. We can still see remnants of the early abbey in our Norman Chapter house and the Abbot’s Gatehouse (Cathedral office). The Cathedral Schools Trust, which occupies the back part of our site, includes other parts of the original monastic complex. The schools are in and out of the building and very important partners in our life. Because they share the site, we have no Close and staff and clergy housing is scattered. In the Cathedral the Norman east end of the abbey was re-built from the thirteenth century onwards in the innovative ‘hall church’ design from the continent. The ceilings are all the same height – creating large windows and an extraordinary liturgical space. The architectural significance of Bristol is often overlooked. Pevsner said that the hall church was “superior to 5 anything else built in England, and indeed, Europe at the same time”. For 300 years we were constrained in a T-shaped building, as we lost our nave (it was being rebuilt at the time of the dissolution). Finally, in the 1860s, a new nave was commissioned and designed by G E Street, which mirrored the east end and new furnishings were put in by J L Pearson at the start of the twentieth century – a pulpit, open screen and reredos, which gives us our modern layout. The organ, which consists of the Renatus Harris case (c.1685) was then re-built by Walkers in 1907, to meet the needs of the new nave. Liturgical life We are true to our monastic heritage and worship is at the heart of our daily life. We sustain the worship of the cathedral with confidence. The clergy and others, meet daily for Morning and Evening Prayer and there is a daily (lunchtime) Eucharist.