CHRISTMAS at Wakefield Cathedral in 2012 will be like no other
in my lifetime. The nave is closed because we are two-thirds of the
way through a 12-month makeover.
This is the first time since the 1870s that we have had a chance
to renew our infrastructure (flooring, heating, lighting,
wall-cleaning, etc.) and to replace our uncomfortable pews with
practical and movable chairs.
Our cathedral was built as a medieval parish church, where the
nave was used by the whole community, and the current work will
create a large, flexible space that can recapture something of that
welcoming and open spirit. The work will be finished in time for
Easter 2013, to help celebrate the 125th anniversary of diocese,
cathedral, and city.
A closed nave means that, for Christmas 2012, we will all
squeeze into the quire and east end. The one thing we can guarantee
is that the place will be packed out. We will huddle together in
the most un- Anglican fashion, dreaming not of a white Christmas,
but of a new heating system.
Those who visit Wakefield Cathedral just once a year for
midnight mass, or one of our other Christmas services, will be in
for a shock. The first surprise will be that all the usual
entrances are closed, and the meagre car park has been cordoned off
to provide Bob the Builder with somewhere to store his tools.
So there will be no slipping in at the back during the first
carol. Like the rest of us, our annual visitors will follow signs,
and eventually they will find what they are look- ing for. I wonder
whether, for Christmas, we should replace the usual entrance signs
with a guiding star.
A NAVE under reconstruction is quite a sight to behold, as
viewers of my performance of the "VAT Ditty" on YouTube earlier
this year will testify (News, 18 May). It brings home the awesome
construction of the building. Even with all our modern tools and
methods, it has still been a huge project to renovate the nave - we
cannot begin to imagine the scale of difficulty experienced by the
original 15th-century craftsmen.
In Advent, we wait, and long, not only for the coming of the
Lord Jesus, but also for the opening of the renewed nave. The work
we are able to see through our viewing windows has done a great
deal to whet our appetite for what's in store. Already, the
previously grimy walls are golden and shining in the meagre
December sunshine.
One of the interesting by- products of the project has been the
creation of a website, www.366days.org.uk, for which all sorts of
people - young and old, professional and amateur - have signed up
to be the photographer of the day, to take today's photograph of
cathedral life.
Some of these pictures capture the magnificence of the building,
and some record the quirky people and activities that make up
Wakefield Cathedral. And many of them provide a lasting archive of
the transformation that is taking place. Our 2013 calendar is made
up of these photos, and we are planning a substantial exhibition in
the nave when it reopens next year. It is interesting for us
regulars at the cathedral to see what a visitor picks out as
significant.
A cathedral in a state of undress is a memory that will last a
lifetime. Schools continue to flock to see the work at first hand,
as do adult groups - all marvelling at the size of the space, and
the painstaking renovation.
OUR new heritage officer has joined a blossoming education team,
providing imaginative programmes where young people learn about a
living cathedral, and all that it contains. The "Christmas Journey"
is a chance for schools to meet the baby Jesus through music,
drama, and stained glass. The hope is that they will be captivated
by, and treasure, the cathedral as they grow up. We are always
delighted when one of our young visitors comes back the next
weekend, to show his or her family what a special place this
is.
A closed nave calls for a great deal of improvisation. The choir
has had to be on its best behaviour all year long, with the
congregation up close and personal. The overflow congregation has
had to sit in the south-quire aisle, with limited vision of
sanctuary and choir. As a result, we have started to film the
services and project them on TV screens.
This, in turn, has allowed a weekly upload to YouTube, and a
chance to watch and listen again to the Sunday preacher. We have
also developed the idea of "Mobile Cathedral". Clergy and choir,
together with some of the congregation, have been taking choral
evensong out into the deaneries of the diocese this year. All the
churches have been invited to come, and receive a wooden cross made
out of the former cathedral pews, as a lasting memento of the
project. We hope that they, in turn, will come back next year to
worship with us in the renewed nave.
Christmas will stretch our imagination further. We are lucky
that we are located right in the heart of the city centre; so the
Christmas Eve Christingle service will, this year, be held outside,
on the steps that extend the full length of the cathedral, in full
view of all the shoppers milling about in the pedestrian
precinct.
It will be a great opportunity for everyone to join in, and
there will be warm punch at the end of the service to prevent
hypothermia. We hope that people will come inside afterwards to see
the changes taking place.
THE cathedral is the largest public space in the Wakefield area.
And, all year round, people love to sneak in to marvel at this
peaceful, sacred space, to say a quiet prayer, and light a candle.
But, normally, the run-up to Christmas at the cathedral is such
that, if we are not careful, we risk skipping Advent almost
entirely.
The Christmas trees and crib tend to move in at the end of
November, and our only concession to Advent is to light the Advent
wreath, and turn off the Christmas-tree lights on a Sunday. The
reason for these premature Christmas celebrations is that, in a
normal Wakefield Advent, cathedral life is one of wall-to-wall
carol services and concerts. A thousand people visit each day to
sing and listen to carols.
Pupils, teachers, and parents gather from countless schools,
because we are the only space in the area large enough to welcome
them all. Similarly, we usually have three services for the local
hospice, at which people remember their loved ones by sponsoring a
light on the giant Christmas tree.
The Yorkshire Philharmonic Choir tends to sell all its tickets
before the posters even go on display. The Civic Carol Service,
attended by the Mayor and councillors, is one of several occasions
each December when our worship is supported by one of Yorkshire's
many brass bands, which raise the roof and cause our ears to
ring.
Perhaps more surprisingly, Huddersfield Town Football Club has
an annual carol service here, and the Chief Constable of West
Yorkshire's Christmas concert could fill the nave twice over.
A normal Advent, then, is a great opportunity for people from
all over the diocese and region to experience the cathedral and its
excellent choir. There is always a sense of a musical and
liturgical marathon, which culminates in the last lap on Christmas
Day.
I have to admit to a certain relief for us at home, when we
finally settle down for our Christmas dinner at about 6 p.m.,
knowing that we have done our best - not just for all our visitors,
but also for the newborn Babe. I suspect that it will be a bit
different this year, with a more measured run-in through Advent,
and a gentler final sprint.
Pamela Greener is director of tax at Pace plc, chairs the
Friends of Wakefield Cathedral, and is married to the Dean of
Wakefield, the Very Revd Jonathan Greener.