Cathedral in Touch A Newsletter for our Community 27 June 2021 | 4th Sunday after Trinity War and Peace Armed Forces Day is kept locally on a Saturday in early summer. We have just hosted it in a rather more muted manner than normal but a representative congregation gathered on Saturday 26 June. Uniforms and military standards were on display alongside familiar hymns and prayers. There has often been a close connection between the Armed Forces and the established Church of England. We host the chapel for the Royal Tigers and other memorials in the building marking significant campaigns or the stories of service personnel. I am always pleased Welcome Welcome to welcome veterans and serving personnel into our midst and invariably moved by their fortitude and selflessness in both addressing evils as well as maintaining peace. These days the greatest chunk of military work relates to peace keeping and humanitarian work. However, there is also a subtle relationship between this ministry of hospitality and the demands of Christian faith. At times this has not been handled well. For example, take the silence of the Church to offer any compelling response to the horrors of the First World War. Or at another pole, the language of our faith used to enhance a national or propaganda push elevating military service to that of enacting God’s will is very problematic. Yes, of course Jesus’ words saying “no one has greater love than this that they lay down their lives for their friends” (John 15.13) can vividly retell a story of war, but it is to use these words out of context and at times to veil the needs for mature reflection. Christians have also had to make sense of being called to obey the fifth commandment ‘You shall not kill’ (Exodus 20.3) and at the same time to follow the new commandment of Jesus “love your enemies” (Matthew 5.44). For the first four centuries of the church up until the conversion of Emperor Constantine it was forbidden to be a serving soldier and a baptised Christian. Our own patron Saint Martin of Tours, often depicted as a Roman Soldier, had to renounce his soldiering in order to be baptised. There remains to today a very honourable Christian Pacifist tradition which has adherents in every generation including John Wycliffe, Charles Spurgeon, Vera Britten and Martin Luther King. Right up until the 1968, the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops official church teaching was “war as a means of settling international disputes is incompatible with the teaching and example of our Lord Jesus Christ”. In 1998 the conference reiterated much of this as well as “decrying and abhorring the proliferation of arms”. But there is also an honourable tradition of Christian practice which understands violence to be wrong, yet recognises that war can be described as just when very close ethical criteria are met. St Martin of Tours has become the patron saint of Christian pacificists and of serving soldiers (including sailors and the air force). His witness speaks to both traditions and gives us at the Cathedral opportunity to reflect on how justice can be done in the world and how peace can be maintained. These are costly vocations and increasingly complex dialogues especially as new technologies make war more remote or more devastating to creation. As political leadership across the world sits at times lightly to ethical treaties or established norms and practice of warfare critique is needed. Basic resources such as water may become again the subject of conflicts as climate change impacts. As ever it is the bystanders, women and children who often are both the victims of injustice and at the same time casualties in times of strife. So Christian ethics is not just about what might be the right thing for us to do but also what might be right to do on behalf of or with others. Whether committed to the possibility of taking up arms or to a pacifist witness or some version of both, all Christians are called to establish peace and to work for the day when, in the words of Isaiah 2.4, “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”. Welcoming our Armed Forces reminds us of what is undertaken on our behalf and renews our commitments to peace. The Very Revd David Monteith Dean of Leicester CANON-IN- RESIDENCE 4 News and Events ONE OF the clergy 7 LCR Update always holds this phone. Do feel able 8 Preparing for Exodus to contact us if you need but please be 9 History Now aware we cannot receive texts. 11 Reflection 07399 523 330 13 Prayer Thoughts 15 Worship and Donations News from Leicester Cathedral Armed Forces Day Introducing our to know the communities Service 2021 Curate within which I will soon get to serve and learn. I Yesterday we were Manuela Schmucki, our am looking to learn new pleased to once again Curate from 1 July, writes a things as I become part hold the annual service little bit for the Newsletter of the life at Leicester for Armed Forces Day, over the next few months Cathedral and I get to giving thanks for the men by way of introducing know a new part of this and women of the Armed herself. What are you country. Forces community past looking forward to in and present. Leicester and what will If you missed it or want to you miss about Hackney? Opening Times catch up, the live-stream What I will miss most We will be open from is still available to watch about Hackney is 11.00am–3.00pm on on the Cathedral website certainly going to be my Mondays to Saturdays, and Facebook page. current parish Church, St and from 12.00–3.00pm John of Jerusalem, and the on Sundays. people there. For the past Christian Resources Hymns, Pimms and three years I have found a Leicester and Café afternoon tea real home there and I will No:7 are also open as take with me many good Sadly, due to COVID previously. restrictions this has to memories of the people be postponed – note, and the relationships that not cancelled!! It will were built over the past be great to gather as a three years. community when we can There are many things I do so properly and, in am looking forward to in the meantime, Alison has Leicester. It has been only decided she’s not growing a little over a week since any older! Time has been I moved here and people frozen! The new date is have been incredibly penciled in for around the kind and welcoming. So, beginning of September. I am most excited to get Lunchtime Concerts Summer Season 2021 1.00pm | In person and Online Free admission, donations encouraged 28 June – In person and Online James Upton | Baritone Nigel Simeone | Piano A collection of Baroque, Classical, and Romantic baritone repertoire 12 July – In person and Online Kezia Robson | Soprano Colin Druce | Piano A selection of arias and art songs on the theme of storytelling, by composers including Handel, Debussy, Britten and Ambroise Thomas Available online for a limited time only Fumi Otsuki | Violin Sarah Kershaw | Piano The Lark Ascending and others www.leicestercathedral.org | facebook.com/LeicesterCathedral Everyday Spirituality Workshops Join us as we explore a range of Everyday Spiritual Practices that help us deepen our faith. A great opportunity to meet other Christians across the diocese! This term’s workshop will focus on Centering Prayer. This is a partnership between the Community of the Tree of Life, Launde Abbey, Diocese of Leicester and Leicester Cathedral. WHEN: Tuesday 29 June, 7.00–8.30pm on Zoom OR Saturday 3 July, 10.00–11.30am at St Peter’s Church, Copt Oak, LE67 9QB HOW: Email [email protected] to register Saturday 10 July, 10.00am–12.00pm As as our society opens up after nearly a year of lockdowns, join us for a pilgrimage on the theme of Crossing the Causeway. We will start from Leicester Cathedral and take us across different causeways in the city, ending at St Nicholas Church. During our walk, short reflections and prayers will be shared. • This is a free event, but for those who are able there is an option to support the work of the Cathedral through a donation of either £5 or £10. • This walk is accessible to beginners, being able to walk at a speed of about 2 miles an hour. It is wheelchair friendly, mostly level and does not include difficult climbs. Where there are steps, for those in wheelchairs or who find steps difficult, we will arrange an alternative route with full access to the input. Please do let us know if there is any specific support you need. • Don't forget to bring a bottle of water! There will not be any stops for refreshment en route, but there is the option of having a drink together after the walk around 12 noon at Café No:7, St Martin's House. • This walk will go ahead in all weather. • Please gather from 9.50am for a sharp 10.00am start. Register here! LCR Update Restoring the North Porch to its former splendour Behind the hoardings, repair and restoration work to the North Porch is going very well. The North Porch is a key access point for the Cathedral and is, originally, a predominantly medieval timber structure. We are pleased to have completed the timber preservation and this also involved the repair of a couple of splits in the rafters, caused by knots, which we have reinforced with brackets and plates.