Highlights

Pentecost is such an important festival as it’s the start of the Christian Church. The disciples had been tasked, James Bond style, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Ten days after the ascension of Jesus, the disciples and others gather for worship and receive the Holy Spirit. As flames rest on each of them, they start talking in different languages but understand each other. It is significant that there is a variety of race and language, because it is their faith in God that brings them together.

When I teach my students about Christian symbols, we discuss the unifying effect of images, such as the ichthus, a cross or a dove. From early Christians to 21st Century Christians, we are touched by by those flames of Pentecost and see fire’s power to purify and create.

Pentecost is a highlight for us. We met properly on the beach at the hotwalls at dawn after helping at the 24 hour youth vigil for Pentecost in 1997. When we married in May 1998 we had Acts 2:1 and our initials engraved inside our wedding rings. David creates music through his job and has always been fascinated with fire - not in a pyromaniacal kind of way but he enjoys an open fire or a log burner. I, on the other hand, struggle to light a match and cannot work a mechanical lighter! My aspect of Pentecost is a love of languages, discovering the linguistic similarities and differences. Make sure you tune into Sunday night’s Evensong when members of our choir and community will speak in many tongues.

What is your Pentecost story?

Dr David Price, Organist and Master of the Chorister and Kitty Price, Cathedral Reader

Update on the use of the Cathedral buildings

Portsmouth Cathedral is continuing to abide by the guidance from the Bishop of Portsmouth and the House of Bishops on accessing our buildings:  

• The Cathedral remains closed to all members of the public, although it is possible that this may change in early July – look out for updates

• The Sunday morning Holy Communion is being broadcast from the Cathedral on Facebook Live. In line with guidance, it is led by one member of the clergy, with at least one member of their household present

• We will continue to broadcast all other services on a daily basis from the homes of our Ministry Team on Facebook Live

• We will continue to mark Feast Days and other important events online, sometimes with pre-recorded videos (such as for VE Day 75 and Pentecost)

Although funerals cannot currently take place in the Cathedral, Church of England funerals continue to take place in churchyards, gravesides and at crematoria. We are here to support you, and you can be in touch with a member of the clergy using the contact details below. 

Fabric Advisory Committee

The Fabric Advisory Committee will meet on Tuesday 2 June by Zoom.  The agenda for this meeting is available on the website.

In the notices this week:

• Thy Kingdom Come 21 - 31 May

• Pentecost Online Choral Evensong - Sunday 31 May, 5.30pm

• Diocesan Pentecost Service - Sunday 31 May, 7pm

• Volunteers’ Tea - Thursday 4 June, 3pm

• Corpus Christi - Thursday 11 June, 5.30pm

• Cathedral Quiz – Thursday 18 June

• Weekly reflection from the Portsmouth Cathedral Ministry Team

• Do you need extra support during the COVID-19 pandemic?

• Resources

• Update on the 2019 Annual Accounts and the financial challenges facing the Cathedral

Regular details of online worship, prayers and intercessions, Dr David Price’s weekly music choice and ways to contact the Cathedral.

Thy Kingdom Come 21 - 31 May 2020

Thy Kingdom Come in Lockdown

Thy Kingdom Come is a global, ecumenical prayer movement which calls us all to prayer during the 10 days between Ascension and Pentecost.  Its focus is on praying for more people to come to know Jesus Christ.  The movement started in 2016, and although it will inevitably look different this year, it has always carried an encouragement for us to pray as individuals and households, as well as congregations, and there are many resources available to help us to do this.  An easy way to participate is by downloading the Thy Kingdom Come app, and do look on our website for further resources for individuals and families https://www.portsmouthcathedral.org.uk/prayer-resources.  During these 10 days, the Cathedral is offering Taizé-style night prayer every evening at 8.30pm from the homes of the ministry team.  This and our other services can be found on our Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/portsmouthcathedral.

The Thy Kingdom Come prayer:

Almighty God, your ascended Son has sent us into the world to preach the good news of your kingdom: inspire us with your Spirit and fill our hearts with the fire of your love, that all who hear your Word may be drawn to you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Pentecost Online Choral Evensong – Sunday 31 May, 5.30pm

To mark the great feast of Pentecost we will be broadcasting Choral Evensong at 5.30pm online on the Portsmouth Cathedral YouTube channel.

Music will be sung by the Cathedral Choirs, pre-recorded from their homes and from our archive, and will include the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in C by Charles Villiers Stanford and Edward Elgar’s ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me’.

We will welcome the Venerable Gavin Collins, Archdeacon of the Meon, who will give the sermon, and two guest readers from the City and the Diocese. Prayers will be in read several languages.

Diocesan Pentecost Service – Sunday 31 May, 7pm

Churches from around the Diocese will round off Thy Kingdom Come in style, with a 'Songs of Praise' style service led by Bishop Christopher. It will feature worship, prayers and readings led by churches across the diocese, including organ music from David Price and an anthem sung by Canon Kathryn and her family.

There's also a chance to see video footage of the amazing work that has been going on in our churches during the lockdown, as we give thanks to God for opportunities to serve others during the coronavirus pandemic.

The service will be available on the Diocese of Portsmouth’s YouTube Channel at 7pm on 31 May.

Volunteers’ Tea - Thursday 4 June, 3pm

The coming week is National Volunteer Week – an opportunity for us to say thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who play such a vital part in the Cathedral’s life and ministry. This year’s Volunteers’ Tea is going online, and our volunteers have been invited to a tea party on Zoom.  We are only sorry that everyone will have to bring their own cake, but we are looking forward to meeting, and to hearing from our guest speaker, the Very Revd Andrew Nunn, Dean of Southwark. If volunteers have not received an invitation or you would like to attend, please RSVP to info@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk so that we can send the meeting details to you.

Corpus Christi - Thursday 11 June, 5.30pm

A live-streamed Eucharist will be celebrated at 5.30pm on Thursday 11 June to celebrate Corpus Christi (the Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion). We remember how Jesus shared bread and wine with his disciples and gave us the Eucharist as a means of grace and an assurance of his presence in our lives. Even though we cannot gather to share the sacrament at this time, we give thanks for Christ’s promise to us and his abiding, eternal love.

Cathedral Quiz - Thursday 18 June, 7pm

Following the success of the first online Cathedral Quiz, we will be running another quiz on Thursday 18 June at 7pm. Please note this is different from the date previously published.

We encourage you to join others and play in a team. Using Zoom, you will be able to discuss your answers with your team members during the quiz. If you’d like to play in a team but don’t yet have one, just let us know. You are also welcome to play on your own.

To participate you will need:

• Access to the internet as the quiz will be hosted on Zoom

• A pen and paper to write notes

• As much knowledge as you can muster

How to sign up

Please email sophie.henstridge-brown@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk with:

• Your name

• If you’re playing in a team, please include: the names of all your team members, one email address per household and the name of the team-member who will be in charge of collating your answers

• If you’re not yet in a team, please say whether you’d like to be allocated into a team, or if you will playing on your own

Joining details will be sent on Wednesday 17 June via email.

Weekly reflection

For the past few weeks we have been sharing a short reflection from members of the Ministry Team. You can see all of the previous videos on our YouTube channel here.

Do you need extra support during the COVID-19 pandemic?

If you would like to request help with shopping or collecting medication, posting mail, dog walking, gardening, topping up your gas/electricity key or just a friendly phone call. Please contact Compassionately Portsmouth, who are working with The Hive, Portsmouth, and have volunteers who would be happy to help. Tel: 07942 671194 - Monday to Friday between 9:00am to 5:00pm   or email- coordinator@compassionatelyportsmouth.org.uk

Further detail can be found here

Resources

Details of resources for individuals and families can be found on our website. A new addition to the resources this week is a link to a Facebook page full of activities for families, including things to do for Pentecost.

2019 Annual Accounts

The Cathedral Council met to receive the audited accounts for the period from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019.  These accounts were approved by Chapter on 6 of May 2020. 

The accounts show a deficit of £356,247 for 2019 before unrealised gains on investments of £190,004. Taking into account the investment gain, the reported deficit was £166,243.  It is important, however, to focus on the £356,247 figure as this is the structural deficit on Cathedral operations that we must work to bring back into balance or indeed, surplus.  The recent reduction in the value of our investments resulting from COVID-19 brings this into stark relief as the £190,004 investment gain has effectively been lost through the fall in the value of the stock market.

The Cathedral’s independent auditors, HaysMacintyre, gave an unqualified opinion of the accounts (which is a very good thing) and signed off on the Cathedral remained a going concern through May 2021 (again a very good thing). In signing the Cathedral off as a going concern, the auditors noted the strong action agreed by Chapter to address the structural deficit noted in the above paragraph.

Portsmouth Cathedral - our future

Thank you to everyone who joined the Congregational Meeting last week on Zoom and for sharing your comments and questions.

As discussed last week and has been shared in the notices previously, the Cathedral has long-standing and significant financial challenges which have been compounded by COVID-19.

In response, the Cathedral has made use of the government’s Job Retention Scheme, implemented immediate, tighter cost control and revised the 2020 and 2021 budgets which involve significant expenditure cuts:

• 2020 budget: revised expenditure to just over £800,000, a cut of £290,000 or 27%

• 2021 budget: expenditure set to £670,000, a cut of 39% compared with the original 2020 budget

Even with these very deep cuts, we still project an annual deficit in 2020 and 2021. This is partly because variable income streams (e.g. from rentals and investments) are not expected to return to 2019 levels quickly. It is also because we need to raise more money on a regular basis from commercial events, external fundraising and congregational giving. We currently aim to achieve fully balanced budgets by 2023, but this will only be possible if our income increases significantly.

Our fundraising efforts, led by our new Head of Fundraising and Events Sophie Henstridge-Brown, will focus on raising money for the core areas of our work including engagement with local communities and through schools, music and choirs, and the maintenance and conservation of our building.

On behalf of the Chapter, Sophie should be the first port of call for anyone interested in understanding how they personally, or organisations they may know, can help the Cathedral meet its challenges this year and on a long term, regular basis.

Sophie’s email is sophie.henstridge-brown@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk. We will also be sharing more information about how you can help in the coming weeks. We are very grateful to those who have already offered additional donations or made a new or increased commitment to supporting the Cathedral.

Richard Abraham

Chief Operating Officer (Chapter Clerk)

Music

The psalms provide a rhythm to our daily prayers at the cathedral, which we have sustained even through lockdown and by Facebook Live streaming. One of the glories of Anglican Choral worship is the chanting of the psalms to plainsong or to chant. Here is one of the psalms set for Pentecost. https://binged.it/2XbiEdc

Online worship

Monday-Saturday                            

8.15am Morning Prayer                    

5.30pm Evening Prayer              

8.30pm Taizé-style night prayer (Compline from 1st June)

Plus Toddler Group on Wednesdays at 2.00pm via Facebook

Sunday

9.00am Holy Communion, followed by online coffee at 10.00am

5.30pm Evening Prayer

8.30pm Taizé-style night prayer (Compline from Sunday 7 June)

How to join the services

You do not need to be a member of Facebook to join the services. Please use this link. when the service is about to begin. You will see a prompt asking you to join Facebook, just click ‘not now’. We regret that it is not technically possible to add captions to the broadcasts.

How to join the online Sunday Coffee Hour

Coffee is hosted on Zoom. In order to maintain security details will be sent with our emailed notices.

Prayers and Intercessions

A prayer during COVID-19

God of compassion,

be close to those who are ill, afraid or in isolation.

In their loneliness, be their consolation;

in their anxiety, be their hope;

in their darkness, be their light;

through him who suffered alone on the cross, but reigns with you in glory,

Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Cathedral Prayers

We remember the following for whom prayer has been asked by members of the Cathedral Community: Christopher, Peter, Michael, Richard, Stephen, Paul, Marinus, Chris, Colin, Philippa, Terry, Sally, David, John, Bob, Derek, Joey, Nigel, Trevor, Emrys, Reuben, Andrew, Jonathan, Grant, Melissa, Mary, Laurence and all those in need.

All those who have died: Joan Martin, David May, Tony Foster, Wendy Pascal, Brian Anderson (Priest), Patrick Tobin and Mavis Morris RIP.

Requesting an addition to the prayer list

To add someone to the prayer list, please email info@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk

Getting in touch

We know that this is a lonely and anxious time for many people. Please feel free to get in touch if we can help in any way, or if you just want to hear another voice!

By phone:                                                                                                                                      

The Dean: 023 9282 4400                             

Canon Kathryn Percival: 023 9289 2967

Canon Jo Spreadbury: 023 9275 2335

Messages can also be left on the cathedral phone system 023 9282 3300 and will be responded to as necessary.     

By email:

The Dean Anthony.Cane@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk

Canon Kathryn Percival Kathryn.Percival@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk

Canon Jo Spreadbury Jo.Spreadbury@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk

For pastoral matters pastoral@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk

General matters info@portsmouthcathedral.org.uk