Editorial All Change! This has got to be the theme of our latest newsletter. Members will have known that we had said our farewells last Christmas to the then interim Dean of Lincoln, Dr Simon Jones. Since then the process of appointing a substantive Dean has been concluded and, guess what, we will be welcoming Simon back to Lincoln as Dean! Further details are to be found later in this newsletter. Another appointment to the Cathedral Chapter has been of the Canon Missioner, Revd Rowena King, whose installation took place on Sunday 10th March. Our association is maintaining a close interest in this new appointment, and once again, further details follow below. Accompanying this newsletter is the notice for our Annual General Meeting, which will be taking place on Saturday 29th June. We are delighted to announce that we have arranged for Jeffrey Makinson, the cathedral’s Organist and Assistant Director of Music, to perform a recital during the afternoon featuring some familiar organ pieces. Members are also invited to attend Choral Evensong.
Whilst we look forward to a busy afternoon I am sure there will be enough time to visit the cathedral café! At last year’s AGM an amendment to the constitution was passed, whereby the Chair of our Association would now be an officer of the Association, elected annually. At present there remains a vacancy for this role,and I must thank our Vice Chair, Alan Read, for stepping up to chair our meetings. We will also be saying our farewells at the AGM to Carol Jones, our Treasurer, after two years of intense work during which she has thoroughly overhauled and modernised the Association’s finances. She has successfully claimed Gift Aid outstanding for a number of years and she and husband Terry have reorganised our office, modernising its furnishings and equipment and generally making sure that it is equipped to deal with the demands of the 21stcentury. Both deserve our sincere thanks. Terry has also been reorganising our members’ database and he and Paul Pinchbeck, our membership secretary, are developing an email notification system to members to complement our twice yearlynewsletters. As only approximately one third of our membership has supplied us withan email address our Membership Secretary would urge all who use email to makesure that we have their email addresses. I would also thank our social committee which arranged a series of well attended talks earlier in the year. By the time this newsletter arrives our annual outing to the Welbeck estate will have taken place and the committee will be meeting soon to plan a further programme of activities. After last year’s ‘Carols by Candlelight’ there was a formal presentation, in the form of alarge cheque, of the Friends’ contribution towards the replacement of the heating system in St Hugh’s Choir.
I am indebted to Michael Graves, the Acting Clerk ofWorks, for his detailed article describing how the work for this extensive project was carried out. As this was the largest grant ever given by the Association it is only right that members know how their money has been spent!
New Appointments to Chapter On Sunday 10th March, during Choral Evensong in a packed St Hugh’s Choir, the Bishop inducted our first Canon Missioner, Revd Rowena King, into a Canon’s stall especially reconstructed for this new role.
The Friends are providing the funds for these alterations, and we also supported the costs for a new Missioner’s cope beautifully made by the Cathedral Needlework Guild (see ‘projects’ below.) Hopefully it will be on display at Festal Evensong on 29th June. Rowena has already visited our office and we are establishing ‘Friendly’ and positive rela-tionships with her. Her role certainly appears exhaustive, having responsibilities within the Diocese, City and County. She also has oversight of the Cathedral’s education department and responsibility for pastoral care, leading on developing and growing the Cathedral’s in-person and online congregations. We wish her all the very best for her time in Lincoln. The other most welcome appointment to Chapter is that of our new Dean, Dr Simon Jones.
The Bishop summed up all our feelings when he wrote, “I am delighted that the King has approved Simon’s nomination to be the next Dean of our great Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln. We are looking forward to having him back after having benefited so much from his ministry as Interim Dean last year.” As our association had built up a close working relationship with Dr Jones before he left Lincoln at the end of last year, we are looking forward to developing this further. His installation on Saturday 14 September will I am sure be a cause of considerable celebration.
Completed and ongoing projects As referred to above we were happy to provide funding for both the new Canon Missioner’s cope and her reconstructed stall. The standard of work by both Cathedral volunteers and staff was amazing, as can be seen in these pictures.
Carols by Candlelight In the last newsletter it was announced that this highly popular event would be taking place for the first time on two consecutive evenings in the nave. Any misgivings about ticket sales proved to be totally unfounded and ‘Carols by Candlelight’ on two evenings is here to stay. The standard of performance from the Cathedral choir and organists was, as usual, impressive and both audiences enjoyed wonderful evenings.
During the first evening a large donation was presented to the Music Fund by the Friends and on both evenings I was able to introduce the two new Friends’ choris- ters and the Friends’ Choral Scholar.
At the Music celebration Evensong in January I was delighted to present both young people with their medallions and talk to them afterwards about how they were enjoying being part of the choir.
Corporate Membership Scheme Our Membership Secretary, Paul Pinchbeck informs us that in 1951 there were at least 150 Corporate Friends of Lincoln Cathedral, but since then this category of membership has not been promoted and the numbers are now negligible. As such he and Jo Vitoria, who has been co-opted onto the Council, have been preparing an initiative to revive the scheme. Working with our Patron Andrew Clarke, the Vice Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire, businesses throughout Lincolnshire have been targeted by mail and encouraged to join our over 1,000 individual members by taking out Corporate Friends’ Membership. In reviving corporate membership businesses are being invited to make a donation of £300 a year for three years.
In return for this, not only will they have the satisfaction of knowing that they are helping to preserve the county’s iconic Cathe- dral; but they would also be able to connect their businesses directly with this great church and its mission. As a registered charity, all such donations are an allowable business expense and all subscriptions will be dedicated to specific, identifiable areas directly supporting the Cathedral’s restoration, maintenance and music. Corporate Friends will be able to include the new Corporate Friends logo on their marketing literature. Although it is early days there has been some success in establishing the scheme and we are hoping that more businesses throughout Lincolnshire will add their support to it.
The new heating system in St Hugh’s Choir A report by Michael Graves, Acting Clerk of Works A recent project that was part-funded by the Friends was the Heating Project in St Hugh’s Choir. The Friends contributed £170,000 (their largest ever grant) towards the total cost of over £300,000.
The medieval choirstalls are heated by a system which is hidden underneath the floorboards. After a report on the old system, it was clear that some parts were coming to the end of their lifespan and numerous repairs over time were becoming difficult to replicate. The discovery of a section of melted Styrofoam within the system was also a major cause for concern, given the importance of the stalls and the fact they are constructed of timber.
The historic system had various issues in its design meaning the underground air gaps that need to remain free flowing could become blocked with loose insulation (see picture of melted Styrofoam due to this happening). There were other problems in that the system only provided sufficient heat to lower parts of the body, was noisy when operational and inefficient in its maintenance and running costs, to name a few. The Cathedral Works Department, along with external subcontractors, lifted the floorboards of the stalls, removed the old system, and then installed a new heating system which provides individuals with a small heat source via handmade bronze outlets.
As with many Cathedral projects permission needed to be granted, meaning the Cathedral was without heating for a significant time. The project was completed in early 2023. The new system is now easily accessible and serviceable, delivers a more direct heat to the individuals and is more efficient both in its heat output as well as running costs, so it will benefit the Cathedral for many years to come. The design and detail of the installation has been carried out with careful consideration of the historic importance of the choirstalls, meaning that most people will be unaware of the heating units, but have a comfortable, warm environment to enjoy all the services held in the Choir. A brand-new fire detection system was also incorporated into the design as a precautionary measure.
Copyright the Friends of Lincoln Cathedral. Compiled and written by Michael Belcher and printed by APS printers, Lincoln
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