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# Wakefield Cathedral

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [July Eco-Group Comment](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/07/08/july-eco-group-comment/) - Read about the Eco-Groups activities throughout the past month, including the Emergency Briefing film and hosting a stand at WX.
- [Chapter Report June 2026](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/06/29/chapter-report-june-2026/) - Chapter signs off 2025 annual report, hears about education and outreach
- [Welcoming John Eager, Chief Operating Officer](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/06/18/welcoming-john-eager-chief-operating-officer/)
- [Becca Parkin](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/06/10/becca-parkin/) - Becca Parkin is a first year ordinand and will be on placement at Wakefield Cathedral
- [June Eco-Group Comment](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/06/04/june-eco-group-comment/) - The Great Big Green Week 6th-14th June 2026: 'Together for Good'.
- [2026 Annual Meetings](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/05/14/2026-annual-meetings/) - The Annual Meetings are a chance to give thanks to God for all that happened in the Cathedral in 2025 and review the reports and financial statements. They take place after the 0915 service on Sunday 17 May. Click here for the papers.
- [Vacancy: Safeguarding Support Officer](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/05/04/vacancy-safeguarding-support-officer/) - An exciting opportunity to work with two Yorkshire Cathedrals to help with safeguarding administration and support for their vital work with children, young people, and those in need.
- [Cycling Duo who raised over £250,000 visit Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/05/16/cycling-duo-who-raised-over-250000-for-charity-to-visit-wakefield-cathedral-in-may/) - A father and uncle who have embarked upon their fifth major cycling challenge in memory of their son/nephew visited Wakefield Cathedral on Sunday 15 May.
- [Sir Keir Starmer visits Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/04/01/sir-keir-starmer-visits-wakefield-cathedral/) - On Friday 01 April the Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer paid a visit to Wakefield Cathedral.
- [Choir, Friendship, Belonging](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/06/29/choir-friendship-belonging/) - Nicky's son Christopher joined Wakefield Cathedral Choir in January 2022 and as she explains, despite often facing struggles with change and in social situations due to autism, Christopher has taken the role of Chorister in his stride.
- [Wakefield Cathedral receives funding from Cathedral Music Trust](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/05/26/wakefield-cathedral-receives-funding-from-cathedral-music-trust/) - The Cathedral Music Trust has today announced that it has awarded a total of £400,000 in grants to support high-quality music provision at 22 choral foundations across the UK, including Wakefield Cathedral.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Power of Prayer](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/01/31/weekly-reflection-the-power-of-prayer/) - A couple of weeks ago late one evening our next-door neighbour’s dog started barking. It barked and barked until I was about to get out of bed and then it stopped.
- [Weekly Reflection - Starting Again](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/01/24/weekly-reflection-starting-again/) - Perhaps I should introduce myself. I am Erik Peeters, the new Residentiary Canon at the cathedral and Lay Training Officer with the Diocese. As I write this, I find I am in an odd place – both excited and a little terrified by the fact that my family and I are making a new start, again.
- [Safeguarding and Finances Discussed by Cathedral Chapter](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/12/19/safeguarding-and-finances-discussed-by-cathedral-chapter/) - The Chapter - or Board of Trustees - of Wakefield Cathedral met on Wednesday December 04. A busy agenda focused on a ‘deep dive’ into the cathedral’s arrangements for safeguarding, and approval of the budget for 2025, as well as the regular reports received by Chapter.
- [Enhancing Visitor Experience: New Toilets at Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/12/04/enhancing-visitor-experience-new-toilets-at-wakefield-cathedral/) - Wakefield Cathedral is delighted to announce the installation of new ladies' toilet facilities, a key improvement designed to better support our growing number of visitors and the diverse events hosted within our historic building.
- [Weekly Reflection - Living Hope: Our Advent Journey](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/11/29/weekly-reflection-living-hope-our-advent-journey/) - Advent is the season leading up to Christmas when the goose is getting fat and chestnuts will soon be roasting by an open fire.
- [Eco Comment - Getting A Round Tuit](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/09/27/eco-comment-getting-a-round-tuit/) - There’s always been a sort of a joke in our house about procrastination. My grandma would always come out with the old adage about it being ‘the thief of time’. She was right.
- [Royal School of Church Music Singing Awards.](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/10/20/royal-school-of-church-music-singing-awards/) - You may notice ribbons that are coloured green, red and gold being worn with pride by some of our choristers. The choristers were presented with RSCM Voice for Life Singing Awards at Choral Evensong last Sunday.
- [Half Term at Wakefield Cathedral (May-June 2023)](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/05/26/half-term-may-23/) - Don't miss out on our free half term activities!
- [A Bright Future for the Music Department!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/06/16/a-bright-future-for-the-music-department/)
- [Eco Comment - Cathedral Cycle Route Completed!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/06/16/eco-comment-cathedral-cycle-route-completed/) - Our journeys in life can take many forms and be for many reasons.
- [Abseil Fundraiser Huge Success](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/22/abseil-fundraiser-huge-success/) - Last Saturday saw the triumphant return of Wakefield Cathedral’s annual Abseil Fundraiser after a post-covid break. 34 brave and determined locals gathered to take on the towering heights of the cathedral’s iconic tower, all in the name of raising funds for causes close to their heart.
- [Wakefield Cathedral Hosts Momentous Service for Wakefield Trinity Rugby Club](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/26/wakefield-cathedral-hosts-momentous-service-for-wakefield-trinity-rugby-club/) - As Wakefield Trinity celebrates 150 years of playing rugby with over 100 past and present players, fans, staff, directors and guests gathered at Wakefield Cathedral on 21 September to mark the historic milestone. The first players came from Holy Trinity Church Wakefield and started playing on Heath Common, before moving to the current site at Belle Vue.
- [Weekly Reflection - Hope and Healing](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/29/weekly-reflection-hope-and-healing/) - Friday 29 September marks the feast day of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. The word 'angel' derives from the Greek angelos, simply meaning ‘messenger’.
- [Weekly Reflection - Struggling with Change](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/11/17/weekly-reflection-struggling-with-change/) - Nothing in life is constant; everything is changeable, nothing is static, because life isn’t static, its constantly moving forward.
- [Follow Me - 2024](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/01/04/44719/) - Bishop Tony and Wakefield Cathedral will warmly welcome the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, to speak at the next ‘Follow Me’ session on Thursday 25th January 2024.
- [Eco Comment - A Food Revolution Starts with a Seed](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/03/01/eco-comment-a-food-revolution-starts-with-a-seed/) - Having returned home from working in Dubai at the latest COP, Hot Poets have been working on a new project: ‘We Feed the UK’, in collaboration with the Gaia Foundation, ‘photographers, and poets and some of the UK’s custodians of soil, sea and seed in order to showcase positive solutions to climate change, the biodiversity crisis and social justice.'
- [Taizé Prayer Event Launches Pilgrimage](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/04/30/taize-prayer-event-launches-pilgrimage/) - Wakefield Cathedral welcomed a group of people from different parts of the diocese to pray, sing the meditative music of Taizé, and find peace through stillness and silence.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Art of Retreating](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/06/07/weekly-reflection-the-art-of-retreating/) - Very recently, I took a day’s retreat; in all honesty, it had been a long while since I actually had a retreat day and an even longer while since I took an overnight retreat, so I was due!
- [Shakespeare Comes to Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/07/05/shakespeare-comes-to-wakefield-cathedral/) - Wakefield Cathedral is delighted to host the Chapterhouse Theatre Company's production of Shakespeare’s most beloved romantic comedy, "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." Prepare to be swept away into the magical forest of Athens, where bewitched lovers, mischievous fairies, and comical players come together in a spellbinding evening of theatre.
- [Eco Comment - National Allotments Week](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/08/16/eco-comment-national-allotments-week/) - Unbeknownst to me this last week (12-18th August) has been National Allotments Week and this year’s theme has been celebrating Bio-Diversity.
- [Eco Comment - International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer and World Car Free Day](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/09/20/eco-comment-international-day-for-the-preservation-of-the-ozone-layer-and-world-car-free-day/) - Whilst not exactly linked to each other it’s no real surprise to find that the United Nations International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer (16th September) and World Car Free Day (22nd September) feature so close to each other in the Environmental and Sustainability Awareness Calendar 2024.
- [Photo Gallery: Abseil Fundraiser 2024](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/09/27/photo-gallery-abseil-fundraiser-2024/)
- [Eco-Group Comment - Earth Day 2026](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/04/22/eco-group-comment-earth-day-2026/)
- [February Eco-group Comment](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/02/13/february-eco-group-comment/) - A Lent-themed reflection on climate prayer and fasting from our Eco-group for February 2026. Read on!
- [January Eco-Group Comment](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/01/16/january-eco-group-comment/) - A simple challenge - and joy! - in this month's eco-group comment ...
- [Candlemas Message](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/01/30/candlemas-message/) - Canon Kathryn Goldsmith reflects on Candlemas, the feast of light, where we remember the baby Jesus being dedicated in the Temple.
- [December Eco-Group Comment](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/12/18/december-eco-group-comment/) - Our eco-group's final monthly reflection for the year on positive news and stepping out. Click to read more.
- [November Eco-group Reflection](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/11/07/november-eco-group-reflection/) - As COP 30 begins, our Eco-group reflect on our care for the planet and the work of Anglicans worldwide to support those suffering from the changing environment.
- [Follow Me: Praying with the Psalms](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/10/21/follow-me-praying-with-the-psalms/) - An evening exploring how the Psalms - the Bible's song book - can help is in our praying and our journeys of faith. Thursday 13th November 2025, click for more details.
- ['Greening the Urban Landscape': Eco-Comment 26 September 2025](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/09/26/eco-comment-26-september-2025/) - A series of eco-conversations being held on Tuesdays 16, 23, 30 September at 19:00 in the Cathedral. Here's a report from the second one on what we can do for food sustainability in our communities...
- [Eco-Comment September 2025](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/09/19/eco-comment-september-2025/) - A series of eco-conversations being held on Tuesdays 16, 23, 30 September at 19:00 in the Cathedral. Here's a report from the first one on what we can do for food sustainability in our communities...
- [Report from April Chapter Meeting](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/04/04/report-from-april-chapter-meeting/) - The Chapter - or Board of Trustees - of Wakefield Cathedral met on Wednesday April 02. As well as the usual discussions of finances, safeguarding and the report from the Senior Management Team, Chapter took a ‘deep dive’ into environmental matters and considered the process for seeking a new Chapter member.
- [Artwalk at Wakefield Cathedral 26 March 2025](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/21/artwalk-at-wakefield-cathedral/) - What's on at this week's Artwalk at Wakefield Cathedral?⁠
- [Pilgrim Cello Comes to Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/20/pilgrim-cello-comes-to-wakefield-cathedral/) - Poet and Cellist Kenneth Wilson is undertaking a 2,000 mile bicycle pilgrimage around all 42 English Anglican cathedrals, performing a Meditation on the Seven Last Words of Jesus.
- [Weekly Reflection - Pancakes, Ash and Surprises](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/07/weekly-reflection-pancakes-ash-and-surprises/) - I do hope your pancakes on Tuesday did not resemble the ashes you may have seen and had marked on your forehead on Wednesday.
- [Save the Date: Farewell to Dean Simon](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/02/27/save-the-date-farewell-to-dean-simon/) - You will have seen the news that our Dean is to retire at the end of July.
- [Mission & Outreach, and Managing Risk were High on Cathedral Chapter’s Agenda this Month](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/02/27/mission-outreach-and-managing-risk-were-high-on-cathedral-chapters-agenda-this-month/) - The Chapter – or Board of Trustees – of Wakefield Cathedral held their latest meeting on Wednesday February 26. Key agenda items included a ‘deep dive’ into mission and outreach, discussions of how we manage risk, as well as the usual in-depth discussions on finance and safeguarding, and review of regular reports from various committees and the senior management team.
- [Lent at Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/02/27/lent-at-wakefield-cathedral/) - Lent begins this week, a season of spiritual focus in preparation for Easter.
- [Film Screening Inspires Eco Conversation at Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/04/10/film-screening-inspires-eco-conversation-at-wakefield-cathedral/) - Yesterday evening, Wakefield Cathedral opened its doors for a special screening of Six Inches of Soil, a powerful documentary that champions sustainable farming and the growing movement of regenerative agriculture in the UK.
- [Eco Comment - All Saints and All Creatures](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/11/01/eco-comment-all-saints-and-all-creatures/) - Saturday is the feast of All Saints and our patronal festival. In many countries it is a fixed holiday and for many years was considered a ‘day of obligation’ so the faithful were expected to attend mass and ‘engage in rest from work and recreation’.
- [Eco Comment - CBD COP 16](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/10/25/eco-comment-cbd-cop-16/) - I am quite regularly confused by things that I read and hear so seeing this acronym was no different really. I was trying to work out why we were thinking about COP 16 when the last one that I wrote about was COP 28. Did the numbering go backwards? Or had I missed something?
- [Eco Comment - Recycle Week and a Moss Garden](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/10/18/eco-comment-recycle-week-and-a-moss-garden/) - This week is ‘Recycle Week 2024’ and it’s theme this year is ‘Rescue Me’ which fits in very well with the second theme of the week about a ‘Moss Garden’ ...
- [Eco Comment - Wakefield and District Good Food Partnership Launch](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/10/11/eco-comment-wakefield-and-district-good-food-partnership-launch/) - Often, when I’ve decided to write an Eco Comment on a particular subject, several newspaper or media reports appear on the same subject. This week is no exception.
- [Eco Comment - Artificial Intelligence: The Shape of Things to Come (or is it Already Here?)](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/10/04/eco-comment-artificial-intelligence-the-shape-of-things-to-come-or-is-it-already-here/) - The subject of this week’s Eco Comment comes at the suggestion of Kitty, to whom I send my copy every week and they then include it within the Cathedral Catch-Up. I am very grateful, and I hope our readers are too.
- [Eco Comment - Our Quest for Silver](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/11/08/eco-comment-our-quest-for-silver/) - Two years ago the Eco Group at Wakefield Cathedral was created as a response to the push for all Church of England cathedrals and churches to be net zero carbon by 2030.
- [Eco Comment - Food Waste Week and Plastic](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/04/26/eco-comment-food-waste-week-and-plastic/) - Do you have a cupboard or drawer in the kitchen for plastic containers? Most people do. I’m not sure where the mentality comes from but it’s probably down to age and the ‘don’t throw it away, it might be useful?’ thought that encourages so many of us to keep these receptacles.
- [Eco Comment - Earth Day = People who care and do](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/04/19/eco-comment-earth-day-people-who-care-and-do/) - When you see organisations and companies ranging from the Radio Times to charities desperate for your money referencing Earth Day as part of their marketing strategies, you know that someone, somewhere has taken note of an event that started very small in 1970 and has now become a date that is noticed and acted upon.
- [Eco Comment - Of Walking on Thin Ice: A film about walking, family, connections, climate and a better future.](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/04/12/eco-comment-of-walking-on-thin-ice-a-film-about-walking-family-connections-climate-and-a-better-future/) - There are many reasons people decide to take or make a walk. Possibly at it’s simplest it is to go from A to B. The decision to walk might be for financial or health reasons. It might be for personal and/or spiritual gain.
- [Eco Comment - Brum, brum!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/05/31/eco-comment-brum-brum/) - I’ve recently seen some of the advertising for this year’s new car registration numbers. It’s not something that has ever really interested me. Cars to me are something that conveniently takes me from A to B safely.
- [Eco Comment - Water, Water Everywhere.](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/05/24/eco-comment-water-water-everywhere/) - ‘Water, water everywhere’ and the rest of the poem depends on your source. Poets, writers and the advertising people have taken the original line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (1798) and changed it to suit their purposes.
- [Half Term at Wakefield Cathedral (May 2024)](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/05/23/half-term-at-wakefield-cathedral-may-2024/) - Don't miss out on our free half term activities!
- [Eco Comment - Mental Health Week](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/05/17/eco-comment-mental-health-week/) - This week has been Mental Health Awareness Week. (13-19th May). The theme this year is Movement: moving more for your mental health.
- [Eco Comment - No Mow May and the Sowing of Seeds](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/05/10/eco-comment-no-mow-may-and-the-sowing-of-seeds/) - ‘Plantlife’s “No Mow May” campaign is again urging gardeners to allow wilder lawns with wildflowers to flourish, helping support bees, butterflies, and other wildlife.’
- [Eco Comment - Plastic Free July Starts on Monday](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/06/28/eco-comment-plastic-free-july-starts-on-monday/) - It’s weird to think that it’s almost July and the start of Plastic Free July. I remember writing about it last year and, if I’m honest, I don’t feel that much has changed.
- [Fabulous Fundraising: Wakefield Cathedral's Upcoming Fashion Show](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/06/04/fabulous-fundraising-wakefield-cathedrals-upcoming-fashion-show/) - Wakefield Cathedral is thrilled to announce a fashion show and clothing sale, an event designed to raise essential funds for the ongoing preservation and activities of Wakefield Cathedral.
- [Eco Comment - World Rainforest Day 2024](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/06/21/eco-comment-world-rainforest-day-2024/) - Were you aware that June 22 is World Rainforest Day? I didn’t know either but discovered an informative website with easy to access pages and a clear message: worldrainforestday.org
- [Eco Comment - A New Environment](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/06/07/eco-comment-a-new-environment/) - This week I’m very fortunate to be away with family in a new environment to me. A holiday in Pembrokeshire has allowed me to experience a quiet coastal environment combining huge stretches of sand and sea with quiet secluded coves awash with rock pools ...
- [Tools with a Mission: Donations of Usable Tools Wanted](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/06/04/tools-with-a-mission-donations-of-usable-tools-wanted/) - Leeds Diocese MU are collecting unwanted usable tools. Tools with A Mission (TWAM) refurbishes the tools, sorts them into trade tool kits and sends them to the developing world for livelihood creation.
- [Service of Commemoration to mark the 80th Anniversary of D-Day](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/06/04/service-of-commemoration-to-mark-the-80th-anniversary-of-d-day/) - Wakefield Council is inviting residents to attend a Service of Commemoration to mark the 80th Anniversary of the Normandy Landings. The service on Thursday 06 June will commence at 20:00 at Wakefield Cathedral and will be led by the Bishop of Wakefield, the Rt Reverend Tony Robinson.
- [Eco Comment - Happy Holidays](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/07/19/eco-comment-happy-holidays/) - For so many parents in England today is the start of the school holidays. If you haven’t made plans for outings or actual ‘holidays’ away, this is the time for those last minute bargains.
- [Eco Comment - Butterflies and Bees](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/07/12/eco-comment-butterflies-and-bees/) - We have two environmental issues to focus on this week. The Big Butterfly Count starts today and we’re in the middle of Bees’ Needs Week.
- [Eco Comment - Happy New (Academic) Year!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/08/29/eco-comment-happy-new-academic-year/) - This is not going to be a political comment, although water could be considered a very political hot potato at the moment. Last week I was writing about watering an allotment and on returning home I realised that my own garden was in dire need of the wet stuff too.
- [Eco Comment - Bridging Borders: Water for a Peaceful and Sustainable Future](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/08/23/eco-comment-bridging-borders-water-for-a-peaceful-and-sustainable-future/) - This is not going to be a political comment, although water could be considered a very political hot potato at the moment. Last week I was writing about watering an allotment and on returning home I realised that my own garden was in dire need of the wet stuff too.
- [Eco Comment - Sustainable September](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/09/13/eco-comment-sustainable-september/) - We often hear the term ‘sustainable’ but has the meaning changed in our current environmentally-focused world?
- [Eco Comment - Heritage Open Days](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/09/06/eco-comment-heritage-open-days/) - One of the joys of September for me is the opportunity to enter usually quite expensive venues for free. This is thanks to the Heritage Open Days scheme. But, what has that got to do with all things sustainable and eco I hear you ask?
- [Eco Comment - National Tree Week: It's time to Grow a Tree in 23](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/11/30/eco-comment-national-tree-week-its-time-to-grow-a-tree-in-23/) - This year is special because it marks the 50th anniversary of the famous 'Plant a Tree in 73' campaign from which the National Tree Week (and The Tree Council) was born.
- [Eco Comment - Black Friday November 24 is about shopping, you can DO NOTHING about it!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/11/23/eco-comment-black-friday-november-24-is-about-shopping-you-can-do-nothing-about-it/) - No, it’s not a mistake. ‘Buy Nothing Day’ is a kick back against the mass advertising of Black Friday which follows the American Thanksgiving Holiday.
- [Christmas at Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/11/09/christmas-at-wakefield-cathedral/) - Celebrate the joy of Christmas at Wakefield Cathedral with our festive events programme. Scroll down for event details and cathedral opening times over the Christmas period.
- [Eco Comment - Planting, Poppies and Patience](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/11/08/eco-comment-planting-poppies-and-patience/)
- [Eco Comment - For all the Saints Who from Their Labours Rest](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/11/02/eco-comment-for-all-the-saints-who-from-their-labours-rest/) - St John Paul II, as one of the most recent saints in the Catholic Church, compelled us to care for creation and to undergo an “ecological conversation”.
- [Eco Comment - Lists, Lists and More Lists.](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/12/20/eco-comment-lists-lists-and-more-lists/) - Do you write lists for yourself? I know many people do. I’ve tried it as a way of being more productive and as a time management procedure. It didn’t work.
- [Eco Comment - Winter Walks, Wildlife and Festive Bird Treats.](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/12/14/eco-comment-winter-walks-wildlife-and-festive-bird-treats/) - It’s not surprising that as humans we are very much influenced by the weather. When it’s cold, damp and foggy we feel down, but give us a ray of sunshine and the whole world brightens up.
- [Eco Comment - Mothering Sunday](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/03/08/eco-comment-mothering-sunday/) - After the long cold days of January and February we’re suddenly in the brighter month of March and halfway through Lent. I realise that the church, in it’s wisdom, allows us these special days to relax, or ‘rejoice’ in this case.
- [Eco Comment - Fairtrade Fortnight has Moved!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/03/15/eco-comment-fair-trade-fortnight-has-moved/) - For many years, 29 in fact, Fairtrade Fortnight has taken place in the spring, but this year, in order to really celebrate 30 years of helping farmers around the world, they have moved the actual fortnight to September ...
- [Eco Comment - World Water Day 2024 - Water for Peace](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/03/22/eco-comment-world-water-day-2024-water-for-peace/) - We’ve all got used to these ‘days’ for specific things, ranging from National Trivia Day in January to International Day of Neutrality in December. Some appear more important than others. I suppose it all depends on our perspective and place in the world order.
- [Eco Comment - Litter and the Great British Spring Clean](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/03/29/eco-comment-litter-and-the-great-british-spring-clean/) - You might have seen the big advertising hoardings last month which state that 3 million animals are killed annually by litter (Keep Britain Tidy research 2018). Many of these animals died on the roadside, trapped in litter such as bottles and cans.
- [Eco Comment - World Health Day](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/04/05/eco-comment-world-health-day/) - This weekend sees another ‘special’ day. At first glance you might be wondering what health has to do with either eco or environmental matters, but since its inception at the first health assembly in 1948, the celebration has aimed to create awareness of a specific health theme in order to highlight a priority area of concern for the World Health Organisation.
- [Eco Comment - Your Internet Carbon Footprint: Part 2](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/02/08/eco-comment-your-internet-carbon-footprint-part-2/) - Welcome to part 2 of being more eco-aware on the computer. If you read last week’s Eco Comment you will no doubt have done a quick ‘unsubscribe’ to those daily emails that are set to inform (or are more likely trying to persuade you to buy something).
- [Eco Comment - Food, glorious food!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/02/16/eco-comment-2/) - For the next few weeks this Eco Comment is going to be food-based. This is not meant as a cruel added temptation of Lent, but will hopefully educate us all in different ways.
- [Eco Comment - Food Waste Part 2: The (Shocking) Facts](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/02/23/eco-comment-food-waste-part-2-the-shocking-facts/) - The UK produces the highest amount of food waste in Europe. Over 1/3 of all food produced globally goes to waste.
- [Weekly Reflection - Love and Lent](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/02/23/weekly-reflection-love-and-lent/) - This has been officially the first week of lent, Ash Wednesday marked the beginning of lent in which we held a service in the hospital chapel.
- [Eco Comment - Happy New Year](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/01/05/eco-comment-happy-new-year/) - I’d already decided that I wanted to start the New Year with good news but then I read some of the papers! It was all so depressing.
- [Eco Comment - “The more I learn, the more I realise how much I don’t know.”](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/01/12/eco-comment-the-more-i-learn-the-more-i-realise-how-much-i-dont-know/) - This quote is attributed to Albert Einstein, but is fairly similar to one by Aristotle: ‘The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.’ I am definitely in this situation.
- [Eco Comment - How to Offset Your Holiday Carbon Emissions](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/01/26/eco-comment-how-to-offset-your-holiday-carbon-emissions/) - I recently booked a flight to Berlin and for the first time was asked if I wanted to pay extra to ‘offset’ the emissions. As chance would have it, I also saw a post from a friend who was ‘feeling perplexed’ about a flight that she had to take.
- [Eco Comment - Your Internet Carbon Footprint](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/01/31/eco-comment-your-internet-carbon-footprint/) - Last week’s Eco Comment prompted me to research further into how our lifestyle impacts or creates our carbon footprint. The keyword in this is ‘research’.
- [Eco Comment - Patience, Frustration and the Willingness to Wait.](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/12/08/eco-comment-patience-frustration-and-the-willingness-to-wait/) - Frustrate = 1. Make (efforts) ineffective. 2. prevent (a person) from achieving a purpose. 3. discontented because unable to achieve one’s desire.
- [Eco Comment - Join the Big Recycling Hunt](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/10/13/eco-comment-join-the-big-recycling-hunt/)
- [Eco Comment - The Wonders of Water](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/10/20/eco-comment-the-wonders-of-water/) - I saw a brilliant photo this week of salmon leaping at Stainforth Force in Ribblesdale. To me, it’s one of nature’s mysteries, a bit like bird migration. How do they do it?
- [Eco Comment - Using the Hours of Daylight](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/10/27/eco-comment/) - What do the following dates have in common? 1714, 1759, 1784, 1907 and 1916.
- [A Prayer for peace in Israel and Gaza](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/10/27/a-prayer-for-peace-in-israel-and-gaza/) - Heavenly Father, we pray for the many people whose lives have been torn apart by conflict in Gaza and Israel.
- [Weekly Reflection - Sunrise](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/01/18/weekly-reflection-sunrise/) - Standing at the kitchen sink this morning, I looked out towards Woolley Edge as patches of red colour began to tinge the morning sky. Each day is transformed by the rising sun, which brings light and warmth after the darkness and cold of night, just as the year is transformed by the coming of spring.
- [Weekly Reflection - Suffering and Faith](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/02/15/weekly-reflection-suffering-and-faith/) - As I write, 35,000 people are thought to have perished in the horrific earthquake in Turkey and Syria; it will be more by the time you read this. We instinctively feel shocked by such devastation, and those who have died are in the prayers of the cathedral community, as are those trying to bring them relief.
- [Eco Comment - Wild or Weed?](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/05/24/eco-comment-wild-or-weed/) - I was reading this month’s Cathedral Book Club choice 'The Daughter of Time' by Josephine Tey and was struck by a situation quite early on in the book.
- [Eco Comment - World Bee Day](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/05/18/eco-comment-world-bee-day/) - Writing this weekly comment is fascinating. I am learning so much and I hope the information I find is giving you something interesting to read each week.
- [Eco Comment - Eco-Grief](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/06/23/eco-comment-eco-grief/) - I heard a term this week that had somehow passed me by: Eco-Grief, or Eco-Anxiety.
- [Eco Comment - Cycle for the Century](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/06/08/eco-comment-cycle-for-the-century/) - I noticed a message on my phone today telling me how much my carbon breakdown was for the past year due to my taking the train instead of travelling by car.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Heart of the Matter](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/06/02/weekly-reflection-heart-of-the-matter/) - "I could never do your job!" I hear this statement quite often. "It must get you down." Well actually, I see my job or vocation as a privilege, to come alongside a person in their last moments of life and accompany them into death and beyond.
- [Eco Comment - Love Your Burial Ground](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/06/01/eco-comment-love-your-burial-ground/) - A few weeks ago, we in the Eco Group were thinking about the land around the cathedral and if it might be possible to do something to make it somewhere special to be. The initial idea came about because we’d discovered the following …
- [Eco Comment - Landscaped by Humans](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/07/27/eco-comment-landscaped-by-humans/) - How often do we marvel at ‘our green and pleasant land’ and the wonders of God’s creation, only to discover that what we’re actually looking at is manmade?
- [Eco Comment - September is the Other January](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/01/eco-comment-september-is-the-other-january/) - September remains symbolic of a fresh start. It signifies summer’s passing, and conjures up images of back to school, sharpened pencils, new shoes and a different teacher; one who doesn’t know you and allows you to start afresh.
- [Eco Comment - Second Hand September and the Clothes Mountain](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/08/eco-comment-second-hand-september-and-the-clothes-mountain/) - Second hand September has become an annual campaign for the Oxfam charity. It encourages people to ‘Dress for the World you want’ in an effort to reduce waste and take a stance against climate change.
- [Eco Comment - Great British Beach Clean](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/14/eco-comment-great-british-beach-clean/) - I happened to read a review for a radio programme and was so intrigued that I listened to it on BBC Sounds. It chimed so much because I knew that this weekend was designated the Great British Beach Clean.
- [Eco Comment - Seed Gathering Season](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/22/eco-comment-seed-gathering-season/) - The 23rd September is the Autumn Equinox and the first day of the autumn season. It occurs when the sun passes the equator moving from the northern to the southern hemisphere.
- [Eco Comment - The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/29/eco-comment-the-wheels-on-the-bus-go-round-and-round/) - A song that nearly all of us know. Small children especially love to sit on the front seat upstairs on the bus. Going on a bus is such an adventure; the wait at the bus stop hoping that no one is sitting in that precious front seat.
- [Eco Comment - Travelling the Eco Way](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/07/21/eco-comment-travelling-the-eco-way/) - I feel like I’ve been on the move for a few weeks now and other than a taxi for a 4:30am start, I haven’t been in a car!
- [Eco Comment - Building Biodiversity](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/08/04/eco-comment-building-biodiversity/) - Some members of our congregation spent last week in the beautiful setting of Parceval Hall near Grassington in the Dales. They were there as members or guests of Christians Aware (an international Christian organisation made up of individuals and groups from a wide variety of Christian faiths dedicated to working for Justice and Peace) and were taking part in a summer school which aimed to ‘raise awareness of the interconnectedness of all life on earth, and to increase their commitment to its flourishing.’
- [Summer at Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/07/21/summer-at-wakefield-cathedral/) - Don't miss out on our free summer events!
- [Eco Comment - Earth Overshoot Day](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/08/11/eco-comment-earth-overshoot-day/) - Last Wednesday was Earth Overshoot Day. This is the day when the earth as a whole has used up its resources for the year.
- [Eco Comment - The Pros and Cons of Drinking the White Stuff](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/08/18/eco-comment-the-pros-and-cons-of-drinking-the-white-stuff/) - ‘The Future is Dairy Free’, or so says the headline for World Plant Milk Day 2023. Whilst I knew that there were lots of alternatives to cow’s milk, I had not been aware of this particular day in the calendar.
- [Eco Comment - The Times, They Are A-Changing](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/08/24/eco-comment-the-times-they-are-a-changing/) - I’m old enough to remember when this title song by Bob Dylan came out. What I didn’t know is that the first time it was played in concert was in Carnegie Hall.
- [Eco Comment - Zeroing in on Climate Change](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/07/06/eco-comment-zeroing-in-on-climate-change/) - Every so often something happens which has a real impact and helps bring our faith to life in different ways.
- [Eco Comment - Summer’s Here!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/07/13/eco-comment-summers-here/) - Some schools have broken up and others are counting the days! For many people this is a time for getting out the BBQ!
- [Weekly Reflection - A mission of love](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/04/20/a-mission-of-love/) - I very much enjoy my ministry at the cathedral, it allows me the space to immerse myself in the joys of the liturgy, providing me with the spiritual food needed to sustain me.
- [Weekly Reflection - Not another April fools...](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/04/01/weekly-reflection-not-another-april-fools/) - Canon Derek A few weeks before I was born, the BBC famously broadcast an episode of Panorama purporting to show the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland. Apparently hundreds of people rang the BBC to ask where they could buy some spaghetti trees...
- [Weekly Reflection - Loneliness](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/05/13/weekly-reflection-loneliness/) - Just after Easter on my day off and bank holiday, I went away for two nights to Ilkley, by myself. This week is Mental Health Awareness Week with a special focus on loneliness...
- [Weekly Reflection - Don't doubt it](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/07/01/weekly-reflection-dont-doubt-it/) - I have no skin in the game of American politics, so I have been able to look on with a degree of dispassion at the extraordinary divergence of views about what really happened on 06 January 2021 in the Capitol building in Washington DC.
- [Cycling the English Cathedrals - Part Two](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/06/10/cycling-the-english-cathedrals-part-two/) - On Thursday 23 June, Wakefield Cathedral will warmly welcome Revd Colin Baldwin, who is taking part in Stage Two of his mammoth challenge of cycling the English Cathedrals, raising funds to build a new centre by his church in the city of Southend-on-Sea.
- [Weekly Reflection - Walsingham Way](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/08/10/weekly-reflection-walsingham-way/) - Sing the praises of Mary, the Mother of God, Whose ‘Walsingham Way’ countless pilgrims have trod.
- [Weekly Reflection - "All the world's a stage"](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/10/26/weekly-reflection-all-the-worlds-a-stage/) - My work took me to London for a few days last week, and I was delighted to be able to see a couple of plays in my spare time. They were both written by an up-and-coming writer from a few hundred years ago, called William Shakespeare...
- [Weekly Reflection - The Peace of God](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/11/09/weekly-reflection-the-peace-of-god/) - We who are left, how shall we look again Happily on the sun, or feel the rain, Without remembering how they who went Ungrudgingly, and spent Their all for us, loved, too, the sun and rain?
- [Weekly Reflection - For all the Saints](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/11/02/weekly-reflection-for-all-the-saints/) - On a miserably wet night this week – you probably experienced it yourself, though I hope you managed to stay indoors! – I went out to South Kirkby to preach. The church there is dedicated, as our cathedral is, to All Saints, the festival we celebrate at the beginning of November.
- [Weekly Reflection - Let's Focus!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/01/07/weekly-reflection-lets-focus/) - Are you paying attention? Speaking personally at this point, I hope so! But more generally it seems that fewer and fewer of us are paying attention.
- [Weekly Reflection - Light in the darkness](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2021/12/22/weekly-reflection-light-in-the-darkness/) - A few days ago the northern hemisphere had its winter solstice. The north pole was tilted to its maximum distance from the sun
- [Eco Comment - Measuring your Climate Footprint](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/04/25/eco-comment-measuring-your-climate-footprint/) - Have you measured your Climate Footprint? If so, were you surprised at the result? I was. I thought I was doing almost all of the right things to be a good environmental citizen only to discover that there was so much more that I could do.
- [Eco Comment - Jesus Died to Save the Planet // Earth Day](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/04/18/eco-comment-jesus-died-to-save-the-planet-earth-day/) - This Good Friday I would like to share with you this powerful essay by Paul Kunert which reclaims the foundational truth that the gospel is good news for the whole of creation.
- [Eco Comment - April = Earth Month](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/04/04/eco-comment-april-earth-month/) - I find that I’m increasingly aware that the beginning of April marks a brighter, lighter time of year. Suddenly everything in nature appears to change and start growing.
- [Eco Comment - Clocks! Mothering Sunday and Lady Day](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/27/eco-comment-clocks-mothering-sunday-and-lady-day/) - It’s official: spring has sprung and British Summer Time commences this weekend.
- [Eco Comment - Wakefield Cathedral Peregrines](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/21/eco-comment-wakefield-cathedral-peregrines/) - This week I am delighted to welcome a new voice to our Eco Comment. A chance meeting at the Rhubarb Festival resulted in a fascinating insight into many things with a wildlife focus and in particular the peregrines that nest on our cathedral tower.
- [Eco Comment - Food Waste Action Week - 17-23 March 2025](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/14/eco-comment-food-waste-action-week-17-23-march-2025/) - In a world where so many are hungry, the world wastes an incredible amount of food each year. It is one of the most important but unseen issues of climate change.
- [Eco Comment - Lenten Observances](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/07/eco-comment-lenten-observances/) - As you read this comment you’ll be a few days into your Lenten Observances. For many years these were and still are invariably focussed on things that you ‘gave up’.
- [Eco Comment - Gardeners, it's Time to Plant!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/02/28/eco-comment-gardeners-its-time-to-plant/) - It’s ok, there isn’t really a TV competition about gardening but maybe there should be?
- [Eco Comment - The Importance of Invertebrates](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/02/21/eco-comment-the-importance-of-invertebrates/) - Some of you might have seen the advance notice of an event that we are hosting in the cathedral on 09 April. The Eco Group, with the support of Just transition Wakefield, are showing the film Six inches of Soil, a film which, as the name suggests, is about the importance of good quality soil in our lives.
- [Eco Comment - World Wetlands Day – 02 February](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/01/31/eco-comment-world-wetlands-day-02-february/) - When I mentioned the RSPB centre at St Aiden’s and Fairburn Ings the other week I had forgotten that we in Wakefield can bird-watch at Pugney’s Country Park.
- [Eco Comment - International Education Day 2025](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/01/24/eco-comment-international-education-day-2025/) - On January 26 of every year, International Environmental Education Day is celebrated and utilised to be the day of support and service to our mother nature.
- [Eco Comment - Big Garden Birdwatch](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/01/17/eco-comment-big-garden-birdwatch/) - It’s that time of year again when we can sign up to support the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. ‘This is the world’s largest garden wildlife survey. Every year, hundreds of thousands of nature lovers take part, helping to build a picture of how garden birds are faring.’ (RSPB.org.uk)
- [Eco Comment - Resolutions for a New Year](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/01/10/eco-comment-resolutions-for-a-new-year/) - This comment is a rather late start to the New Year, which is already 10 days old by the time you read it. I hope that you all enjoyed the festivities and managed a break from everyday working. I’m also wondering just how many of you made resolutions but have already fallen by the wayside on those promises that you valiantly made on the 1st January? I suppose it depends on the resolution.
- [Eco Comment - Good News!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/12/20/eco-comment-good-news/) - Well, we made it, almost. There are only a few more days to go before the big day. There are still some carol services to go and Christingle but I’ve done my last concerts of 2024 and the bass is now in its corner for the holiday.
- [Eco Comment - Words of Wisdom from HQ](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/12/13/eco-comment-words-of-wisdom-from-hq/) - A bit of a cheat this week, but if it saves time and fits the bill, why not?
- [Eco Comment - Some Good News and a Conundrum](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/12/06/eco-comment-some-good-news-and-a-conundrum/) - At the end of June I wrote an Eco Comment about Plastic-Free July. The headline report featuring the impact that this made has been published this week. The results are promising to say the least.
- [Eco Comment - Be Prepared](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/11/29/eco-comment-be-prepared/) - It’s official. The run up to Christmas officially starts this weekend. Last week was Stir up Sunday or the final Sunday of the church year.
- [Eco Comment - One Health: A Better Food System for All](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/11/22/eco-comment-one-health-a-better-food-system-for-all/) - A break from the questions this week. Last month I attended the launch of the Wakefield District Good Food Partnership.
- [Eco Comment - Plastic-Free July Part 2](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/08/02/eco-comment-plastic-free-july-part-2/) - For this week’s Eco Comment I had been going to write about my holiday but I got an email this morning which disturbed me and subsequently changed my plans.
- [Weekly Reflection - Epiphany](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/01/13/weekly-reflection-epiphany/) - Archimedes (Greek mathematician born 287 BC) and Einstein (German Physicist born 1879) are famous for their epiphany moments
- [Archbishop of York to Visit Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/04/24/archbishop-of-york-to-visit-wakefield-cathedral/)
- [Chapter Report April 2026](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/04/20/chapter-report-april-2026/) - Risk, recruitment and redevelopment on Chapter agenda.
- [Superlative Surprise Royal](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/03/27/superlative-surprise-royal/) - Today marks the 200th anniversary of the second ever peal of Surprise Royal. 200 years on, our brilliant team of volunteer bell ringers marked the occasion by ringing 200 changes of Superlative Surprise Royal on Tuesday evening.
- [Chief Operating Officer](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/03/10/chief-operating-officer/) - Help lead a fantastic team in an iconic building at the heart of the community: we are looking for a Chief Operating Officer who will oversee people, finance, and day-to-day operations in this amazing place at the heart of our city and district. Click for more details.
- [Priest / Residentiary Canon](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/02/21/priest-residentiary-canon/) - Be part of a team sharing Christian faith and life, serving the community and raising aspiration in wonderful West Yorkshire in the Diocese of Leeds. Click through for details of our search for a priest / residentiary canon.
- [The installation of The Very Revd Dr Philip Hobday as Dean of Wakefield](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/03/09/the-installation-of-the-very-revd-dr-philip-hobday-as-dean-of-wakefield/) - Wakefield Cathedral welcomed guests from across the city, county and wider Diocese of Leeds on Saturday 7th March for a joyful service marking the installation of The Very Revd Dr Philip Hobday as Dean of Wakefield.
- [Woman Composer Sunday](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/03/05/woman-composer-sunday/) - Join us on International Women's Day, March 8, to discover some new music by woman composers!
- [Chapter Update February 2026](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/02/11/chapter-update-february-2026/) - An update from the February 2026 meeting of Chapter (the Cathedral's trustees) which considered staffing, finance, and safeguarding.
- [Come and Sing at Wakefield Cathedral!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/02/25/come-and-sing-at-wakefield-cathedral/) - A chance to come and sing at Wakefield Cathedral - whatever age or (lack of!) experience, join us on Sunday 22nd March!
- [Online Lent Groups](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/02/18/online-lent-groups/) - Details of a chance to reflect on identity and faith this Lent.
- [MU Cafe Restarts Soon!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/02/13/mu-cafe-restarts-soon/) - Details of our Friday Mothers' Union Meet Up Cafe which restarts soon!
- [Installation of the Dean](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2026/01/12/installation-of-the-dean/) - Having become the new Dean of Wakefield on 10 January, Canon Philip Hobday will be installed at a special service on Saturday 07 March at 14:00.
- [New Year Blessings from Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/12/31/new-year-blessings-from-wakefield-cathedral/) - From everyone at Wakefield Cathedral, may you have a happy and blessed new year. Click here to watch.
- [Rachel Copley](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/12/29/rachel-copley/) - All at Wakefield Cathedral grieve the death of Rachel Copley, a much-loved member of the Cathedral and wider community and Chief Operating Officer. Click for more.
- [A Christmas blessing from Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/12/24/a-christmas-blessing-from-wakefield-cathedral/) - A prayer for wonder, joy, and peace from our beautiful, peaceful Cathedral - read on for the links.
- [A partnership cafe in the heart of Wakefield](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/12/22/a-partnership-cafe-in-the-heart-of-wakefield/) - Wakefield Cathedral and AgeUK, working in partnership, are delighted that Treacy Hall will reopen as a cafe in 2026 - a place for refreshment and conversation at the heart of our city. Click here to read more.
- [Christmas Reflection](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/12/19/christmas-reflection/) - The Sub-Dean's Christmas Reflection on the light which fills the Christmas stories and illuminates our own journeys of life and faith. Click here to read more.
- [Christmas and New Year Opening Hours](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/12/18/christmas-and-new-year-opening-hours/) - Wakefield Cathedral is open for free, for everyone, for 365 days a year. However our opening hours do change over the Christmas and New Year period so please do check this page for details of opening times and services.
- [Chapter Update December 2025](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/12/11/chapter-update-december-2025/) - Canon Jane Evans, senior non-executive member, writes about the December meeting of Chapter, the Cathedral's trustee / governing body.
- [Christmas at Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/12/02/christmas-at-wakefield-cathedral-2/) - You are warmly welcome to special Advent and Christmas Services at Wakefield Cathedral - click for more details!
- [The next Dean of Wakefield](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/11/30/the-next-dean-of-wakefield/) - The Bishop of Leeds has appointed Philip Hobday as the next Dean of Wakefield. He will become the spiritual and administrative head of one of the three cathedrals in the Diocese of Leeds. Find out more about our next Dean here.
- [Monthly Reflection](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/11/28/monthly-reflection/) - Our December reflection is from the Bishop of Wakefield for the start of Advent.
- [Farewell to our Bishop](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/11/26/farewell-to-our-bishop/) - People from across West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire gathered to say thank you and farewell to Nick Baines as he steps down after eleven years as he first Bishop of Leeds.
- [Advent Meditations](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/11/26/advent-meditations/) - Need an antitode to the bustle and busyness around us in December? Try our three online meditations - Wednesdays 03, 10, 17 December, 19:30-20:15. All welcome to one or more! Click for more details.
- [Honorary cathedral role for Leeds parish priest](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/11/19/honorary-cathedral-role-for-leeds-parish-priest/) - Wakefield Cathedral welcomes The Reverend Dave Ho Young from the Moor Allerton and Shadwell churches in Leeds as an honorary canon.
- [November Reflection](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/10/30/november-reflection/) - Canon Philip Hobday reflects on November, a special month of celebration at the Cathedral and a time of remembrance for Christians and for society.
- [Could you make a difference?  Chapter Member / Non-executive Trustee](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/10/10/could-you-make-a-difference-chapter-member-non-executive-trustee/) - Wakefield Cathedral is seeking to recruit a new member to the Cathedral Chapter - an exciting opportunity to contribute to our governance and oversight of the Cathedral's mission. Read on to find out more ...
- [Serving others through our MU Cafe](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/10/16/serving-others-through-our-mu-cafe/) - Our MU Cafe on Friday mornings offers a cuppa, a chat, and also supports good causes locally! Read more...
- [The next Archbishop of Canterbury](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/10/03/the-next-archbishop-of-canterbury/) - Wakefield Cathedral offers prayers and warmest wishes to Dame Sarah Mullally as she is announced as the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
- [Eco-Conversation 3: Climate Justice](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/10/03/eco-conversation-3-climate-justice/) - The third of our eco-conversations focussed on climate justice
- [Our new Lay Minister](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/10/01/our-new-lay-minister/) - David Dean, a regular worshipper here, was licensed as a Lay Minister (Reader) by the Bishop of Wakefield at a joyful service this month. Read more and see photos here!
- [Generosity Week](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/09/26/generosity-week/) - In National Generosity Week, we say a huge thank you to everyone who gives generously to keep our wonderful Cathedral open and our vital work happening - for free, for everyone, for three hundred and sixty five days a year.
- [Annual Report Reveals Achievements and Challenges](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/09/11/annual-report-reveals-achievements-and-challenges/) - Find out what we have been doing, and how we have raised and spent money, in 2024.
- [Chapter Update September 2025](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/09/11/chapter-update-september-2025/) - Read about our latest Chapter (Trustee) Meeting
- [A Yorkshire Day reflection](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/08/01/a-yorkshire-day-reflection/) - 'This blessed plot': A Yorkshire Day Reflection by Canon Philip Hobday
- [Carols by Candlelight](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/08/01/carols-by-candlelight/) - Early bird tickets for our magical evening of Christmas carols, cheer, and candles now on sale! 7pm on Fridays 12th and 19th December. Click for details.
- [Charity Abseil](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/07/28/charity-abseil/) - Abseil down the tower beneath Yorkshire's tallest spire for charity this autumn - Saturday 13 September!
- [Dean of Wakefield selection process](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/07/21/nextdean/) - An update on the process for selecting the next Dean of Wakefield.
- [Thank you and Godspeed](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/07/08/thank-you-and-godspeed/) - Friends from nearly forty years of public ministry gathered on Sunday 06 July to say thank you to Anne and Simon Cowling, and to wish the family well, as he retires as Dean of Wakefield this month.
- [Report from June Chapter Meeting](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/07/04/report-from-june-chapter-meeting/) - Chapter - or Board of Trustees - of Wakefield Cathedral met on Wednesday 26 June and said a fond farewell to outgoing Dean, Simon Cowling, as well as considering a future choir tour, finance, and committee memberships.
- [Weekly Reflection - Jesus: Just the Beginning](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/04/25/weekly-reflection-jesus-just-the-beginning/) - When exercising ministry at our cathedral, I often seem to offer the 10.30am Prayer Book communion on a Wednesday. I am a great fan of the Prayer Book, and celebrating this service is something to which I look forward.
- [Weekly Reflection - A Tariff-Free Easter](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/04/18/weekly-reflection-a-tariff-free-easter/) - As I write, the words ‘tariff’ and ‘Trump’ continue to dominate our news feeds. It’s springtime for business journalists, who are currently all over the media expounding their views on where the economic pieces that President of the USA has thrown into the air will fall.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Messiah We Have](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/04/11/weekly-reflection-the-messiah-we-have/) - The taste of hosannas is still on my lips, the smell of the palms as they patter against the cloudless blue sky of Jerusalem’s day when David’s own scion comes riding a colt and prophesy seems to arrive as we hoped ...
- [Eco Comment - Six Inches of Soil; A Response](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/04/11/eco-comment-six-inches-of-soil-a-response/) - I find that I’m increasingly aware that the beginning of April marks a brighter, lighter time of year. Suddenly everything in nature appears to change and start growing.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Point of Our Faith](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/04/04/weekly-reflection-the-point-of-our-faith/) - It is a great joy to me that Easter feels so very different from Christmas, especially with the glorious sunshine of the last few days.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Mothering God](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/28/weekly-reflection-the-mothering-god/) - Every now and then a strident headline appears along the lines of ‘Stop using ‘Father’ to talk about God, archbishop urges.’ We’re meant to snort into our cornflakes or cappuccinos at the latest desperate example of the church abandoning the Bible and overthrowing centuries of tradition in a doomed attempt to be trendy and relevant.
- [Bishop Nick Announces Retirement](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/24/bishop-nick-announces-retirement/) - Our Bishop, The Right Reverend Nicholas Baines, announced this morning he will retire this autumn as Bishop of Leeds.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Eyes of Others](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/21/weekly-reflection-the-eyes-of-others/) - O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us!
- [Looking Back at Afternoon Tea with Flat Cap 3](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/21/looking-back-at-afternoon-tea-with-flat-cap-3/) - A message from Yvonne and Eileen of the Mothers' Union Wakefield Branch
- [Care4Us Community Choir at Meet Up Café](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/20/care4us-community-choir-at-meet-up-cafe/) - Care4Us Community Choir is a remarkable group of Wakefield Council Foster Carers who have come together to share their passion for music and their commitment to caring for vulnerable children.
- [Weekly Reflection - A Holy Lent?](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/14/weekly-reflection-a-holy-lent/) - So, how’s Lent going for you? A week and a half in I do hope that whatever Lenten discipline you’ve set yourself this year is proving fruitful – in a spiritual way, at least.
- [Woman Composer Sunday 2025](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/03/07/woman-composer-sunday-2025/) - This coming Sunday, 09 March, marks Women Composers Sunday. This initiative, which encourages choirs to perform music by women composers on the Sunday closest to International Women's Day, was launched in 2021 by the Royal College of Organists and the Society of Women Organists, of which our Assistant Director of Music, Alana Brook, is a prominent member.
- [Megan Joins the Team!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/02/28/megan-joins-the-team/) - Next week Megan Nerlich will join the cathedral team for eight weeks on a full-time placement. Megan lives and studies in Munich, and her course of study involves a period living and volunteering abroad.
- [Weekly Reflection - A Great Weekend](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/02/28/weekly-reflection-a-great-weekend/) - I had a great weekend last weekend. It is not often I get to say that – also because in English culture, I have discovered, people are rather reluctant to admit that something might have been really good.
- [Weekly Reflection - In All Things Thee to See](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/02/21/weekly-reflection-in-all-things-thee-to-see/) - Many years ago, while at a conference in Salisbury, I was lucky enough to take a trip to Bemerton, a small village just outside the city. We sang in the small church and were shown round the Rectory where the early sixteenth century Welsh poet and priest, George Herbert, had served and lived for three years until his death in 1633 at the age of forty.
- [Dean Simon to Retire in July](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/02/17/dean-simon-to-retire-in-july/) - Yesterday Simon Cowling, Dean of Wakefield in the Diocese of Leeds, Church of England, announced he will retire on 31 July. Dean Simon took up his post in September 2018, having previously served in parish and cathedral ministry in Leeds, Sheffield and North Yorkshire.
- [Weekly Reflection - Pilgrim People](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/02/07/weekly-reflection-pilgrim-people/) - Earlier this week I found myself attending a meeting of cathedral precentors at Westminster Abbey. Not in the Abbey itself, however, but in a rather impressive room known as the Jerusalem Chamber.
- [Weekly Reflection - What to Say](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/01/17/weekly-reflection-what-to-say/) - What do you say to people in mid-January? In December you can ask people about their Christmas plans (having complained in October that the shops are already selling mince pies!).
- [Weekly Reflection - The Bigger Scheme of Things](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/01/10/weekly-reflection-the-bigger-scheme-of-things/) - Just after New Year, a couple of days before the temperatures in Wakefield dropped to sub-zero, the cathedral heating system failed. The heating engineer duly attended, inspected the boilers and pipework, lifted grates here and there, spoke mysteriously about manifolds and pumps and valves - and then left saying he would write a report.
- [Weekly Reflection - I wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2025/01/03/weekly-reflection-i-wish-it-could-be-christmas-everyday/) - By the time you read this the mince pies will doubtless long be gone, the turkey a thankfully distant memory, and most (if not all) of the decorations taken down and packed away for another year.
- [Weekly Reflection - Past, Present and Future](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/12/20/weekly-reflection-past-present-and-future/) - 'A great and mighty wonder, a full and holy cure' Those are the opening lines, as usually translated, of a German Christmas hymn, 'Es ist ein Ros entsprungen'. As it happens the translation is not especially accurate, but it does capture a really important theme of Christmas which is sometimes overlooked.
- [Weekly Reflection - A Topical Text](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/12/13/weekly-reflection-a-topical-text/) - You’ll probably miss it when we get to the Carol Service, there are too many frightened shepherds and blazing angels and full inns and shining stars, but St Luke tells us the first Christmas happened when Quirinus was governor of Syria.
- [Weekly Reflection - Advent Reflections](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/12/06/weekly-reflection-advent-reflections/) - Advent is a time of new beginnings and reflection. It is with this in mind that I write my last reflection during my time on placement at the cathedral.
- [Christmas at Wakefield Cathedral 2024](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/11/05/christmas-at-wakefield-cathedral-2024/) - Celebrate the joy of Christmas at Wakefield Cathedral with our festive events programme. Scroll down for event details and cathedral opening times over the Christmas period.
- [Online Advent Meditations](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/11/27/online-advent-meditations/) - Three Advent Meditations will be led by cathedral clergy on Zoom Wednesdays 04, 11, 18 December, 19:30-20:30.
- [Weekly Reflection - (Too) Great Expectations](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/11/22/weekly-reflection-too-great-expectations/) - As the Precentor wrote last week, a shadow has been cast over the Church of England by our very public safeguarding failures and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s decision to resign. There is much work to do, especially at the national level, to ensure our processes for reporting and dealing with allegations are more effective and safer.
- [Eco Comment - COP 29 and Some Questions](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/11/15/eco-comment-cop-29-and-some-questions/) - Well, COP 29 might be said to have gotten off to a controversial start. The Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev has told the United Nations (UN) climate conference that oil and gas are a “gift of God” and that nations “should not be blamed” for having fossil fuel reserves. (BBC News reporting form COP 29 in Baku.)
- [Weekly Reflection - Lights in the World](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/11/15/weekly-reflection-lights-in-the-world/) - The necessity of light has been very much on my mind in the last week or so. Weather reports have noted the lack of daylight this month – the result, apparently, of high pressure causing moisture to become trapped as low cloud that blocks the sun, creating ‘anticyclonic gloom’, as the BBC news website poetically put it.
- [Weekly Reflection - Remember, Remember.](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/11/08/weekly-reflection-remember-remember/)
- [Weekly Reflection - O What Their Joy and Their Glory Must Be!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/11/01/weekly-reflection-o-what-their-joy-and-their-glory-must-be/) - This week the church celebrates the wonderful feast of All Saints, to whom our cathedral is dedicated. On this feast, churches up and down the country enjoy singing a number of rousing hymns whose lyrics and tunes are both majestic and glorious.
- [Weekly Reflection - How to Be a Leader](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/10/25/weekly-reflection-how-to-be-a-leader/) - You wait for one election and then 2024 comes along and it appears half the planet is having a go at them. This year has seen the UK have a general election, several in continental Europe and in the next week or so the US will be deciding who will be running the last great superpower.
- [Weekly Reflection - What's in a Sign?](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/10/11/weekly-reflection-whats-in-a-sign/) - It was as I was staring at a screen full of blank-looking faces the other evening that I realised that my passion for road and railway signage wasn’t shared by the wider population.
- [Weekly Reflection - Time to Party?](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/10/04/weekly-reflection-time-to-party/) - Before the season of ‘mists and mellow fruitfulness’ is fully upon us, we enter another season: that of the political party conferences.
- [Weekly Reflection - Jabber Jabber](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/09/27/weekly-reflection-jabber-jabber/) - The text message pinged in this week inviting me for my flu jab. A few quick clicks and I had booked my flu-and-Covid-booster appointment. Such a gift to have vaccines, which help mitigate some of the risks of illness and disease.
- [Weekly Reflection - There's No Place Like Home ...](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/09/20/weekly-reflection-theres-no-place-like-home/) - Last week I was in Rome, ostensibly on holiday but the friend I was travelling with was one of those folk who never like to stand still.
- [Meet this year's abseilers!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/09/13/meet-this-years-abseilers/) - We are thrilled to announce that 10 people have chosen to support the cathedral for our annual abseil fundraiser, including our very own Events Officer, Jess!
- [Weekly Reflection - Building Up](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/09/13/weekly-reflection-building-up/) - Stepping off a train, an electronic billboard advertising jobs flashed: ‘Could you be a construction manager in Leeds?’ Well, whatever abilities I might have, building things isn’t one of them.
- [Cathedral Fabric, Finances and Staff Well-Being All on Chapter’s Agenda](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/09/06/cathedral-fabric-finances-and-staff-well-being-all-on-chapters-agenda/) - The Chapter of Wakefield Cathedral held its latest meeting on Wednesday 04 September 2024.
- [Weekly Reflection - Introducing Father Doug Rice-Bowen](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/09/06/weekly-reflection-introducing-father-doug-rice-bowen/) - Firstly, please allow me to introduce myself. I am Father Doug Rice-Bowen and I will be with you on placement at Wakefield’s beautiful cathedral for the next three months.
- [Weekly Reflection - Who’d Be a Politician?](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/08/30/weekly-reflection-whod-be-a-politician/) - Earlier this week the Prime Minister gave a speech in the garden in Downing Street in which he gave a sober assessment of the challenges facing the United Kingdom.
- [Weekly Reflection - Try, try again.](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/08/23/weekly-reflection-try-try-again/) - Over the last couple of weeks thousands of young people around the country have been waiting anxiously to receive their exam results. That bit of paper with the transcript of their grades is the embodiment of months, even years, of hard work with future careers potentially dependent upon them; a wrong answer or a sub-par piece of coursework might therefore cost a student a place at their preferred university and possibly even the course they require to qualify in a particular field of employment.
- [Weekly Reflection - Compare and Contrast](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/08/16/weekly-reflection-compare-and-contrast/) - It is now nearly three weeks since the safe and happy space of a group of children in Southport, dancing to Taylor Swift, was brutally violated.
- [RISE UP Against Domestic Abuse](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/08/02/rise-up-against-domestic-abuse/) - In recent weeks there have been reports in the news about an increase in the numbers of women and children suffering domestic abuse. For some time now Mothers’ Union have been seeking to work with other organisations to address this problem.
- [Weekly Reflection - Murder Most Foul](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/08/02/weekly-reflection-murder-most-foul/) - I have just started reading the latest offering from Richard Coles in the Canon Clement Mystery series, 'Murder at the Monastery'.
- [Weekly Reflection - Safeguarding Eden](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/07/25/weekly-reflection-safeguarding-eden/) - Last month I attended a conference for Church leaders at Manchester University on the theme ‘Extinction and biodiversity: Evolution, action and hope’; an opportunity to equip senior Christian leaders with the latest research in scientific fields such as ecology, conservation, climate studies, and evolutionary biology, as well as their intersection with theology.
- [Weekly Reflection - Civility](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/07/19/weekly-reflection-civility/) - ‘Whatever our disagreements in this campaign, he is a decent, public-spirited man, who I respect.’ ‘We also recognise the dedication and hard work [of his] leadership.’
- [Weekly Reflection - What Weather!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/07/12/weekly-reflection-what-weather/) - St Swithun's day if thou dost rain For forty days it will remain St. Swithun's day if thou be fair For forty days 'twill rain nae mare
- [A Farewell Message from Bishop Tony Robinson](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/07/11/a-farewell-message-from-bishop-tony-robinson/) - Last Sunday morning we said thank you and farewell to Bishop Tony Robinson, who has been with the Diocese of Leeds for 27 years and retires at the end of August.
- [Secure Your Spot Early: Carols by Candlelight Tickets Now Available](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/07/05/secure-your-spot-early-carols-by-candlelight-tickets-now-available/) - Tickets are now available for Wakefield's most popular carol concert: Carols by Candlelight.
- [Weekly Reflection - What a Treat!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/07/05/weekly-reflection-what-a-treat/) - It’s easy to forget how recently the United Kingdom became a democracy in the fullest sense – less than a hundred years ago in fact. It was not until 1928 that women were afforded the same voting rights as men, rights they were allowed to exercise in the General Election the following year.
- [Eco Comment - A Visit to Scotland and a Real Discovery](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/07/05/eco-comment-a-visit-to-scotland-and-a-real-discovery/) - I am writing this whilst staying at a very special place that I had previously only seen on television. A trip to Ayrshire with a group of young musicians has brought a new experience that chimes so well with all things Eco.
- [The Rodilllian Singers 60th Anniversary Concert](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/06/27/the-rodilllian-singers-60th-anniversary-concert/) - The Rodillian Singers will be celebrating 60 glorious years of singing together as an award-winning female voice choir by performing their Diamond Anniversary Concert in the beautiful acoustics of Wakefield Cathedral.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Busiest Time](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/06/28/weekly-reflection-the-busiest-time/) - When it is Christmas or Easter, clergy often hear people comment, “This will be your busiest time then.” Nowadays, if anyone says that to me, my response is, “No. My busiest time is the end of June.”
- [Weekly Reflection - Playing Our Part](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/06/21/weekly-reflection-playing-our-part/) - James Stagg is not a name most of us know. He is connected with D-Day, the invasion of Europe eighty years ago this month ...
- [Weekly Reflection - May They Be One](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/05/31/weekly-reflection-may-they-be-one/) - Earlier this week one of my sisters, who lives in Germany, sent me a photograph from Erfurt where she had been singing in a service to mark the Feast of Corpus Christi (which always falls on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday).
- [Weekly Reflection - Green Shoots of Growth](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/05/24/weekly-reflection-green-shoots-of-growth/) - I’m writing this missive whilst on annual leave, which I realise is something of an oxymoron. You can tell that I’m on leave because the weather, which had been gloriously sunny and warm over the preceding few days, has now taken a turn for the worse; my apologies to you all for jinxing things.
- [Weekly Reflection - An Annual Meeting](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/05/17/weekly-reflection-an-annual-meeting/) - This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, or Whitsunday in old money, the day Christians believe the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus’s followers. The Holy Spirit is that person of God who fills our hearts and minds with wisdom, hope, and understanding.
- [Weekly Reflection - Asking the Right Question](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/05/10/weekly-reflection-asking-the-right-question/) - Keys, phones, purses, wallets, those few coins for the parking meter or the shop, the vital bit of paper … We’ll all have had that experience of losing something and looking high and low for it.
- [Eco Comment - Eco Church](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/05/03/eco-comment-eco-church/) - Those of you who were in the cathedral last weekend might have noticed the pull up banners that we borrowed from the diocese. 'Good news for All Creation' is a diocesan message and Eco Church is an organisation specifically encouraging churches from all denominations throughout the UK to work towards awards demonstrating the drive to net zero and/or sustainability.
- [Weekly Reflection - Now is the Month of Maying](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/05/03/weekly-reflection-now-is-the-month-of-maying/) - Each year during my time as an undergraduate, and for many of the years I spent as a graduate student, I set my alarm early on 1st May so that I would wake up in time to go down to Magdalen Bridge to hear the Choir of Magdalen College singing from the tower to welcome in the month of May.
- [Weekly Reflection - Remember Me](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/04/26/weekly-reflection-remember-me/) - Its’ been my birthday this week! By the time you read this, it will have come and gone. Again! Now I’m closer to seventy than sixty, they seem to come round even faster.
- [Spring Study Sessions: Hard to Believe](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/04/23/spring-study-sessions-hard-to-believe/) - We may struggle with believing ourselves, or if we do believe find it hard when others have difficult questions.
- [Weekly Reflection - A Sting in the Tail?](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/04/19/weekly-reflection-a-sting-in-the-tail/) - The other day I came across a news article about bumblebees. Researchers in Canada had been studying queen bumblebees in their dormant state but, in a laboratory experiment gone wrong, they had accidentally drowned them.
- [Concert to Mark RNLI 200th Anniversary at Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/04/17/concert-to-mark-rnli-200th-anniversary-at-wakefield-cathedral/) - Two hundred years of lifesaving and bravery by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) will be marked during an evening of music and story-telling at a choir concert at Wakefield Cathedral.
- [Weekly Reflection - A Different Perspective](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/04/12/weekly-reflection-a-different-perspective/) - Planning a long journey to a meeting about ninety minutes’ drive away, I thought I should pick something (other than the satnav’s instructions!) to listen to. Prompted by a reminder that it’s nearly a year since the Coronation, I decided to listen to the radio coverage of last May’s service.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Time of the Year](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/03/22/weekly-reflection/) - ‘Your busy time of year, vicar?’ This query is an occupational hazard for a priest in December! Actually, I say to people, the festive month isn’t the busiest.
- [Weekly Reflection - Personally Speaking](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/04/05/weekly-reflection-personally-speaking/) - Less than a week after Easter Day the new tax year has begun. Anyone who is required to file a tax return for HMRC will be busy gathering the documentation necessary to complete the task in good time.
- [Weekly Reflection - Life Beyond Life](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/03/29/weekly-reflection-life-beyond-life/) - We have travelled through Lent this year in a world where millions continue to live amidst violence, oppression and need. The headline roll call is familiar: Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan. And underneath the headlines, so many other places.
- [Weekly Reflection - Cross Words](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/03/15/weekly-reflection-cross-words/) - One of the most striking things about the Christian faith is its badge or symbol, the cross. The cross is everywhere these days.
- [Woman Composer Sunday 2024 at Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/03/08/woman-composer-sunday-2024-at-wakefield-cathedral/) - March 10 marks a significant occasion in the world of music - Woman Composer Sunday. Observed annually on the Sunday closest to International Women’s Day, this day celebrates the invaluable contributions of women composers to the musical landscape.
- [Weekly Reflection - Mum's the Word](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/03/08/weekly-reflection-mums-the-word/) - I’ve mentioned “Call The Midwife” in a previous Catch Up article. Last weekend’s episode – the last in the series - had a strong theme looking at the varieties of motherhood.
- [Weekly Reflection - Seeing Life Through a Different Lens](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/03/01/weekly-reflection-seeing-life-through-a-different-lens/) - The other day the BBC News website posted photographs of a delightfully fiery sunrise over Bristol and the West Country. Those who had been on their way to work that morning had been treated to wonderfully glowing skies which coloured even the grimmest of inner cities glorious shades of pink and gold.
- [Weekly Reflection - Our Common Home](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/02/16/weekly-reflection-our-common-home/) - Last week we held the inaugural meeting of the Cathedral Partners Forum. Some fifteen or sixteen people representing commercial, civic, educational, third and cultural sectors across our city and district enjoyed a tour of the cathedral conducted by our architect.
- [Lent Groups](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/02/08/lent-groups/) - Most of us struggle with praying and would like to feel better at it! So three short sessions this Lent will use different things in and around the cathedral building and services to help us focus on prayer together. Come to one or all!
- [Weekly Reflection - Something Fishy](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/02/08/weekly-reflection-something-fishy/) - Did you know (I didn’t till I read an article about it this week) that Lent was abolished in many countries of the Reformation? Curiously, it survived in England.
- [Farewell Ben!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/02/02/farewell-ben/) - As many of you may know, I will be leaving my role as Chief Operating Officer at the Cathedral in March. I feel unbelievably lucky to have been given the opportunity by the Dean to work in such an incredible environment with amazing people.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Changing of the Seasons](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/02/02/weekly-reflection-the-changing-of-the-seasons/) - A year and a half ago I was writing what I thought would be my final ‘Catch-up’ reflection. It was a meditation on endings and beginnings and the joy of finding beginnings in endings and appreciating afresh the starting point of one’s journey.
- [Matthew Coleridge's 'Requiem' comes to Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/01/29/matthew-coleridges-requiem-comes-to-wakefield-cathedral/) - REQUIEM was one of the highest new entries in the Classic FM Hall of Fame 2023, with presenter Alexander Armstrong also choosing it as his Album of the Week, and dubbing the composer “a great force for good in the choral world”.
- [Weekly Reflection - Remember!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/01/26/weekly-reflection-remember/) - Last All Saints’ Day at Horbury we sang a hymn about the saints of the Anglo-Saxon period – people like Paulinus, Columba, Cuthbert and Hilda. The hymn appealed to me for two reasons.
- [Weekly Reflection - Snow ...](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/01/19/weekly-reflection-snow/) - “Once I knew there was a love divine, Then came a time I thought it knew me not. Who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not? Only the lamb as white as snow.”
- ['Our Voices heard' at Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/01/12/our-voices-heard-at-wakefield-cathedral/) - ‘Our Voices Heard’ is a creative songwriting and art project led by Jenna Fan, local musician and Director of Go Pop CIC, musician Tsungai Tsikirai and artist Ruth Fones. Through a series of 12 workshops, women originally from Syria, Sudan and Botswana, now living in the Wakefield District, turned parts of their life stories into songs and artwork.
- [Weekly Reflection - Artificial Stupidity?](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/01/12/weekly-reflection-artificial-stupidity/) - This week, largely thanks to the TV drama Mr Bates v The Post Office, the terrible plight of hundreds of post office staff has exploded into the nation’s consciousness.
- [Weekly Reflection - Look to the future!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2024/01/05/weekly-reflection-look-to-the-future/) - The Restless Republic is the intriguing title of a book that I read over the Christmas holidays. It’s an account of the short period in the middle of the seventeenth century, after the execution of Charles I in 1649, when England became a republic.
- [Weekly Reflection - Presents at Christmas](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/12/20/weekly-reflection-presents-at-christmas/) - Some of you may be familiar with the tradition of Secret Santa. A group of people, who normally know one another pretty well, all put their names into a pot.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Greatest Gift of All](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/12/13/weekly-reflection-the-greatest-gift-of-all/) - When I was growing up, one of my favourite TV shows was Thunderbirds, and one Christmas I – along with millions of other children – desperately wanted a ‘Tracy Island’, a model of the island where Thunderbirds was based.
- [Weekly Reflection - Read and Mark](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/12/08/weekly-reflection-read-and-mark/) - You might remember someone being told to ‘read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest’ – the four instructions telling someone to really get to grips with something important, to take something really to heart.
- [Weekly Reflection - Wakey, Wakey.](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/12/01/weekly-reflection-wakey-wakey/) - God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. With these words the writer of Genesis concludes the first account of God’s creation of the world.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Rest is History](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/11/23/weekly-reflection-the-rest-is-history/) - “We are living in historic times.” That is an odd statement, isn’t it? “History” feels like something that happened in the distant past, but all times are historic.
- [Eco Comment - A loo with a view ... or a view of a loo?](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/11/17/eco-comment-a-loo-with-a-view-or-a-view-of-a-loo/) - For over 10 years our family holidays were spent in a shepherds croft near the summit of a mount, half an hour's walk from Aberdaron on the LLeyn Peninsula in North Wales.
- [Weekly Reflection - Remembering](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/11/08/weekly-reflection-remembering/) - One of the most interesting things to happen in the thirty or so years I’ve been a churchgoer is something that hasn’t happened.
- [Weekly Reflection - Have You Got Rhythm?](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/11/03/weekly-reflection-have-you-got-rhythm/) - Earlier this week on All Saints Day, 01 November, I had a chance conversation in the cathedral with someone who had just arrived in Wakefield from continental Europe.
- [Weekly Reflection - Saints We Never Knew](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/10/27/weekly-reflection-saints-we-never-knew/) - This coming week is the feast of All Saints, which has a particular poignancy in Wakefield as our cathedral bears this dedication.
- [From the west country (back) to West Yorkshire!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/10/27/from-the-west-country-back-to-west-yorkshire/) - The Dean announced last week that the Revd Dr Kathryn Goldsmith FRAS has been appointed as the next Precentor of Wakefield Cathedral.
- [Weekly Reflection - Peace in Jerusalem](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/10/20/weekly-reflection-peace-in-jerusalem/) - Like the Dean last week I find myself only able to write about events in the Holy Land, I am drawn, with him, to the same words: O pray for the peace of Jerusalem, we hear in Psalm 122.
- [Weekly Reflection - Where Blessings are in Short Supply](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/10/13/weekly-reflection-where-blessings-are-in-short-supply/) - ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee.’ (Psalm 122 v6)
- [Eco Comment - The First Ever ‘Purpose Built’ Nature Reserve](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/29/eco-comment-the-first-ever-purpose-built-nature-reserve/) - Some of you might already know this but there is a Leeds Diocesan Eco Book Group. Sadly, I can’t attend it as it invariably clashes with our own Wakefield Cathedral Book Group.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Longing for Home](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/29/weekly-reflection-the-longing-for-home/) - “I feel so broke up, I wanna go home.” So sang the Beach Boys back in the 1960s, in an upbeat song about feeling miserable on board a ship where things were not good!
- [Weekly Reflection - Seek Him that Maketh the Seven Stars](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/22/weekly-reflection-seek-him-that-maketh-the-seven-stars/) - Earlier this week, at a meeting of deans of the northern province, one of our number was reflecting on the span of his own ministry in the context of the great age of the building for which he had responsibility.
- [Weekly Reflection - It's a Messy Life](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/14/weekly-reflection-the-mess-of-life/) - I am writing this reflection on Thursday, which is Holy Cross Day. Growing up in a non-denominational church, I don’t have a long memory of celebrating the powerful symbolism of the cross on this designated day.
- [Weekly Reflection - Not to Be Served, but to Serve](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/08/weekly-reflection-not-to-be-served-but-to-serve/) - My wife and I love each other. I need to make that clear. We both had a few days leave at the end of August, so we each took a holiday.
- [Weekly Reflection - Anniversaries](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/09/01/weekly-reflection-anniversaries/) - Today’s our first anniversary. Not mine and Hannah’s (I remembered, it was early in the year!), but yours and mine: my first anniversary at Wakefield Cathedral.
- [Weekly Reflection - Home and Away](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/08/24/weekly-reflection-home-and-away/) - It’s been great to come back after two weeks’ holiday (where it only rained one day!) and people have been very kind in asking whether we had a nice break.
- [Wakefield Cathedral Hosts Magnificent Photographic 'Portraits' of All 42 English Anglican Cathedrals](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/08/01/wakefield-cathedral-hosts-magnificent-photographic-portraits-of-all-42-english-anglican-cathedrals/)
- [Weekly Reflection - The Roaring Lion(esses)](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/08/17/weekly-reflection-the-roaring-lionesses/) - The traditional rivalry between England and Australia, which was played out in all its intensity in the recent Ashes cricket series, continued earlier this week in the semi-finals of the Women’s Football World Cup.
- [Welcome to our new Honorary Canons!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/08/16/welcome-to-our-new-honorary-canons/) - We’re delighted to announce that the Bishop of Leeds has appointed two new honorary canons for Wakefield Cathedral: the Revd Ben Rhodes, Head of Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and the Revd Hugh Baker, Vicar of Mirfield and Joint Area Dean of Dewsbury and Birstall.
- [Weekly Reflection - Rediscovering the Important Things](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/08/11/weekly-reflection-rediscovering-the-important-things/) - I enjoyed reading Fr Chris’ Weekly Reflection last Friday; thinking about God's presence in the ordinary everyday moments of life.
- [Weekly Reflection - Expecting the Son](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/07/27/weekly-reflection-expecting-the-son/) - Last week, an exciting summer of test match cricket ground to a soggy halt when rain washed out the end of an exciting game, and the Australians won the Ashes … again.
- [Weekly Reflection - God in the Ordinary](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/08/04/weekly-reflection-god-in-the-ordinary/) - Over the past few years, I’ve started catching the train to London a few times per year. Admittedly, this is more for work than pleasure, though I usually manage to elongate the day and combine a daytime meeting with an early supper catching up with friends.
- [London Calling for Father Tim](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/07/26/london-calling-for-father-tim/) - After serving as the cathedral curate for three years, Father Tim Carroll has been appointed as Associate Vicar of St Mary Abbotts in the Diocese of London.
- [Weekly Reflection - Welcoming the Stranger](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/07/21/weekly-reflection-welcoming-the-stranger/) - Earlier this month I had the privilege of leading a Quiet Day in the cathedral for some local clergy.
- [Vacancies at Wakefield Cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/07/13/vacancies-at-wakefield-cathedral/)
- [Weekly Reflection - A Shameful Occupation](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/07/13/weekly-reflection-a-shameful-occupation/) - What is the most unenjoyable job you’ve ever done?
- [Weekly Reflection - A Typical Day](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/07/06/weekly-reflection-a-typical-day/) - It’s 8a.m. on a Tuesday morning, there’s a grey sky and a light drizzle.
- [Weekly Reflection - Peter and Paul](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/06/29/weekly-reflection-peter-and-paul/) - ‘Robbing Peter to pay Paul’ is one of those phrases most of us use or hear without thinking where it comes from.
- [Work of Canon Dr. Mark Oakley Recognised by Archbishop of Canterbury](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/06/29/work-of-canon-dr-mark-oakley-recognised-by-archbishop-of-canterbury/) - Warm congratulations are due to our Canon Theologian, Canon Dr. Mark Oakley. On 22 June Mark was a recipient of the Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship at a ceremony at Lambeth Palace.
- [Weekly Reflection - Retreat to Rediscover](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/06/23/weekly-reflection-retreat-to-rediscover/) - Have you ever been on retreat? If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s not from a military context, although there are some similarities.
- [Weekly Reflection - Problems, Isolation and the Ditch](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/06/16/weekly-reflection-problems-isolation-and-the-ditch/) - As clergy in a busy cathedral in the centre of the city, we often have opportunities to chat with visitors, some of whom are facing difficulties so serious that it’s difficult to know where to start.
- [Weekly Reflection - Ordinary Time](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/06/09/weekly-reflection-ordinary-time/) - Colour is one of the ways we know what’s going on during the church’s year. The colours of clergy robes, and in many churches the colour of altar frontals, is a physical demonstration of where we are in the story.
- [Weekly Reflection - Advent Calendar](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/11/30/weekly-reflection-advent-calendar/) - A member of the congregation sidled up to me after our beautiful Advent Carol Service this Sunday afternoon (thank you to Mr Boswtead and the choir, by the way) and whispered, ‘I probably shouldn’t say this, but I do prefer Advent services to Christmas ones.’
- [Weekly Reflection - Life in the Spirit](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/05/26/weekly-reflection-life-in-the-spirit/) - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
- [Weekly Reflection - Wakefield and the Bouncing Bomb](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/05/19/weekly-reflection-wakefield-and-the-bouncing-bomb/) - As a child I spent many weekends watching those famous Second World War films – 'Guns of Navarone', 'A Bridge Too Far', 'The Cruel Sea', and so on. Now, one of the great things about my job is you get to meet all sorts of amazing people and be involved in all sorts of unusual things. This Saturday, Wakefield commemorates another war scene made into a famous film as we mark the eightieth anniversary of the Dambusters Raid in May 1943.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Alabaster Jar](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/05/10/weekly-reflection-the-alabaster-jar/) - As the dust settles on the Coronation, the media are inevitably keen to look for further newsworthy aspects of all that happened last weekend. One of the more controversial themes has been the lavish cost of the occasion. That is for others to debate, but it reminded me of something else.
- [Weekly Reflection - A Crowning Moment](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/05/05/weekly-reflection-a-crowning-moment/) - Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm from an anointed king Tomorrow, for the first time in seventy years, we will see a coronation; and for the first time in nearly a century, a King and Queen will be crowned in Westminster Abbey, where every English and British sovereign has been crowned for just shy of a thousand years.
- [Celebrate the Coronation](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/04/19/celebrate-the-coronation/) - We look forward to welcoming you to the cathedral and celebrating the coronation with us. There is something for everyone, so don’t miss out on this special occasion!
- [Weekly Reflection - This Joyful Eastertide](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/04/26/weekly-reflection-this-joyful-eastertide/) - Can you still buy a hot cross bun or an Easter egg in your local supermarket? Or are they selling barbecues for summer, or even minced pies, already? The rhythm of the church’s year and the retail calendar aren’t always quite in sync. Whether it’s Christmas or Easter, it seems that you can buy seasonal stuff for weeks (months?) before the big day, but then immediately afterwards the display changes and the world’s moved on to the next thing.
- [Weekly Reflection - Learn, Love, Save](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/04/21/weekly-reflection-learn-love-save/) - The cathedral received news last week that we have been awarded a Bronze Award by Eco Church. This scheme is run by A Rocha UK which inspires and resources Churches and Cathedrals to become greener. Part of the scheme invites users to complete surveys on 5 key areas; Worship and Teaching, Management of Building, Management of Land, Community and Global Engagement and Lifestyle.
- [Weekly Reflection - History as a Tool for Mission](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/04/13/weekly-reflection-history-as-a-tool-for-mission/) - It is Easter week, and yet in Horbury there is ‘no rest for the wicked’, as my attention has now turned to a big community occasion which is taking place at the end of the month, namely a weekend celebrating the 300th birthday of John Carr, architect of such beautiful neoclassical masterpieces such as Harewood House, Buxton Crescent and Wentworth Woodhouse… and St Peter’s Church in Horbury!
- [Weekly Reflection - Early in the morning ...](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/04/06/weekly-reflection-early-in-the-morning/) - I got me flowers to straw thy way; I got me boughs off many a tree: But thou wast up by break of day, And brought’st thy sweets along with thee.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Parody of Life](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/03/31/weekly-reflection-the-parody-of-life/) - What’s your favourite comedy show on TV? Maybe it’s Fawlty Towers, where the eccentric Basil Fawlty attempts to manage a seaside hotel, which usually ends up in tense, rude and absurd encounters with customers and long-suffering spouses and staff. Apparently, the inspiration for Basil and Fawlty Towers came from John Cleese’s experience staying at a hotel and witnessing a hotel manager who saw customers as a hindrance, who merely got in the way of running the hotel well.
- [Meet our new Communications Officer](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/03/29/meet-our-new-communications-officer/) - We are pleased to welcome Kitty Turner to Wakefield Cathedral as our new Marketing, Communications and Digital Officer. Read on to find out more about Kitty, their experience and what they are looking forward to in their new role.
- [Weekly Reflection - Three Years on ...](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/03/24/weekly-reflection-three-years-on/) - This week we marked the third anniversary of the first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020. The inevitable flurry of articles and media interviews included a degree of what is known as revisionism, an attempt, to a certain extent, to rewrite the events of those Spring days : was the lockdown too severe? Did it go on too long? Was it an unwarranted intrusion on our freedoms as citizens? The fact that these questions can be asked openly is a sign of a healthy civil society and to that extent the questions are to be welcomed. I think, though, that there are (at least) two problems with such revisionism.
- [Weekly Reflection - Mothering](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/03/15/weekly-reflection-mothering/) - I wonder what you think is the hardest day for preachers? You might think it’s Christmas (it’s all been said before, surely?) You might think it’s Trinity Sunday (how do you make sense of the Christian belief that there are three persons but only one God?)
- [Woman Composer Sunday](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/03/01/women-composer-sunday/) - Sunday 05 March is designated this year as Woman Composer Sunday, an initiative started in 2021 by the Society of Women Organists to encourage choirs and organists to perform music by female composers on the Sunday closest to International Women’s Day (08 March).
- [Weekly Reflection - "Lord, Deliver Us"](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/03/01/weekly-reflection-lord-deliver-us/) - Last week I was the guest speaker at “Holy Ground”, an informal Sunday afternoon service at Huddersfield Parish Church. I planned my talk some weeks beforehand, and chose to speak about Exodus 1 and 2.
- [Weekly Reflection - One year later](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/02/22/weekly-reflection-one-year-later/) - The past is never dead. It’s not even past. That enigmatic comment of William Faulkner has been much on my mind this week. Today, 24 February, marks the first anniversary of the latest invasion of Ukraine by Russia (it is nearly ten years since Russia invaded and occupied the Crimea).
- [Collaborative Artwork in Treacy Hall](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/02/01/collaborative-artwork-in-treacy-hall/) - In November, we were thrilled to host the artist Johnsey and artists from ArtWorks South Yorkshire, (collectively known as JAAWS Draws) for a two-week residency in Treacy Hall.
- [Day to day mystery](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/02/01/day-to-day-mystery/) - This reflection begins in a humdrum manner but try and stick it out. On Tuesdays the clergy have their weekly meeting to discuss various Cathedral items such as Holy Week prep, annual leave and pancake parties....
- [Weekly Reflection - Never Forget](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/01/25/weekly-reflection-never-forget/) - l fell asleep and awoke only after the pogrom was over. The sun, in all its glory, was shining on a spectacle of horror. Rabbi Gamaliel: a cross of blood cut into his forehead. Asher, the gravedigger: crucified. Manya, his wife: her throat slashed. Their eight sons and daughters: beaten to death. Where to begin? What to do first? Whom to help?
- [Weekly Reflection - Christ Bless this House](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2023/01/04/weekly-reflection-christ-bless-this-house/) - Friday is the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, when we remember the coming of the magi to see the infant Christ. Our celebration of this feast is very ancient, in fact more ancient than the celebration of the nativity itself, and a large number of traditions have grown up around it.
- [Weekly Reflection - Away in a Manger](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/12/21/weekly-reflection-away-in-a-manger/) - It is St Francis of Assisi in the early thirteenth century who is credited with creating the first nativity scene - or presepe in Italian – complete with live animals and people. He used it as a teaching aid in his sermons to emphasise the very humble circumstances of Jesus’s birth.
- [A Christmas message from the Eco Group](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/12/14/a-christmas-message-from-the-eco-group/) - If, like me you have yet to put up your Christmas tree here are a few thoughts on the subject… Artificial trees are ok for the environment if you use yours for at least nine years. Alternatively you can buy a real tree with roots and plant it after the festivities or even rent a tree?...
- [Weekly Reflection - Christmas Gift](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/12/14/weekly-reflection-christmas-gift/) - As we approach Christmas time we’ve already begun thinking about shopping. Trying to think about what presents to buy for family and friends, it can be a bit of a mine field. This week I’ve been emailing my sister-in-law about what present to buy my nieces, I’ve no idea...
- [Weekly Reflection - On the eve of Advent](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/11/23/weekly-reflection-on-the-eve-of-advent/) - This is my second Advent and Christmas working in the hospital, I do have to admit that last year was a surreal experience. No time for the usual anticipation, not much watching and waiting.
- [Gift Day - 30 October 2022](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/10/26/gift-day-30-october-2022/) - Regular members of our worshipping community will have seen that we will be holding a Gift Day this coming Sunday, 30 October, which we are keeping as All Saints Sunday and our patronal festival.
- [Weekly Reflection - Change in the air](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/10/13/weekly-reflection-change-in-the-air/) - Time for Change: Action not Words. That’s the theme for this year’s Black History Month in the UK, which runs from 01 to 31 October. Since it was introduced into this country in 1987, Black History Month has provided an opportunity to focus on the particular experiences of black communities in the UK...
- [Weekly Reflection - Early Learning](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/10/06/weekly-reflection-early-learning/) - I’ve been at the cathedral for nearly six weeks, and of course much of that time has been taken up by our response to The Queen’s death and funeral. Talk about in at the deep end! But it has meant I’ve spent quite a bit of time on the ‘shop floor.’
- [Weekly Reflection - A Living Hope](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/09/21/weekly-reflection-a-living-hope/) - In literature one my favourite characters is Frank Bascombe. One of Franks insights about Christianity, is that it isn’t very helpful when it comes to grief, All the talk of new life can suppress the experience of loss; a kind of ‘don’t worry it ends up alright in end’.
- [Weekly Reflection - Pausing & Reflecting](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/09/15/weekly-reflection-pausing-reflecting/) - It has seemed at some points over the past week as though the whole nation has taken in a deep collective breath. As well as giving thanks for the life of a deeply loved monarch, we are absorbing the consequences of her death for our national self-understanding.
- [Weekly Reflection - Return to School](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/09/07/weekly-reflection-return-to-school/) - So, schools are back! Parents are delighted but the students are a bit unsure… Schools are a very important part of our nation’s life, but I confess that I have an ambivalent relationship with education.
- [Weekly Reflection - Moving on](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/09/01/weekly-reflection-moving-on/) - There’s only one silver lorry owned by a particular major national removals company. We know this because those who moved us from Reading to Horbury Junction were very proud of it! So it was quite funny to see in the newspaper a picture of the same lorry outside 10 Downing Street!
- [Weekly Reflection - Endings and Beginnings](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/08/25/weekly-reflection-endings-and-beginnings/) - “What we call the beginning is often the end, And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”
- [Weekly Reflection - A Prayer for Hope](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/08/19/prayer-for-hope/) - A member of the congregation recently told me that they are heading to Belfast (where I am from), for a few days break this month. As there is less risk of political violence these days, Northern Ireland is increasingly seen as somewhere to spend a few days.
- [A Notice on the future of Cathedral Kitchen](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/08/04/a-notice-on-the-future-of-cathedral-kitchen/) - Following a recent meeting of Cathedral Chapter, it was unanimously agreed that Cathedral Kitchen - the café offering of Wakefield Cathedral - will close, ceasing trading with effect from Friday 26 August 2022...
- [Weekly Reflection - Nothing is permanent, except change](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/08/04/weekly-reflection-nothing-is-permanent-except-change/) - Earlier this week I celebrated my birthday. It wasn’t an especially significant one, but the completion of another year of my life inevitably gave rise to some personal reflection on the passage of time.
- [The cost of a cathedral](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/07/27/the-cost-of-a-cathedral/) - Did you know that it costs £2357 a day to run Wakefield Cathedral? We are still endeavouring to recover our finances from the impact of the pandemic...
- [Weekly Reflection - Dedication is what you need](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/07/27/weekly-reflection-dedication-is-what-you-need/) - I was thinking recently back to my curacy days. I used to visit an old couple and take the wife Holy Communion on a weekly basis. The visit itself was nothing out of the ordinary - the couple would know what day and time I was to be expected, I was always greeted at the home with a cup of tea and a biscuit...
- [Weekly Reflection - Our Corporate Identity](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/07/14/weekly-reflection-our-corporate-identity/) - I’ve been thinking recently about what makes up our corporate identity at the cathedral, and the variety of things that we do on Sundays and throughout the week that makes us who we are.
- [Weekly Reflection - Rest Awhile](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/07/08/weekly-reflection-rest-awhile/) - Last week saw the final choral services of the choir year, as we waved the choristers and lay clerks off on their well-deserved summer break. Many of us, I’m sure, will be similarly disappearing over the coming weeks as we jet off on holiday or journey to our favourite UK destination (as long as the airports, trains, buses and motorways are still functioning)....
- [Weekly Reflection - Protecting Creation](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/06/17/weekly-reflection-protecting-creation/) - We have a new Eco group at the cathedral! Kiran, Sue, Mark and I have been meeting over the last couple of months to get our heads around the challenge of lowering our carbon footprint at the cathedral and how we can fulfil the mission of being active in loving creation.
- [A Blossoming Partnership](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/06/16/a-blossoming-partnership/) - Wakefield Cathedral has been proud to partner with Camphill, Wakefield's specialist college for SEND students, for a number of years, and earlier this week we were pleased to grow our partnership once again thanks to a little bit of gardening work.
- [From Mixing Decks to Mendelssohn](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/06/15/from-mixing-decks-to-mendelssohn/) - Nine-year old Lily-Rose is one of the newest members of Wakefield Cathedral’s ever-growing choir, having joined just four months ago, a role which is somewhat in contrast to her second musical hobby – learning how to mix the decks at the family pub just a stone’s throw away…
- [Weekly Reflection - How's that?](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/06/10/weekly-reflection-hows-that/) - If you listen to Desert Island Discs on Radio 4, you will know that at the end of the programme every guest is invited to nominate a luxury that they would take if they were cast away on a desert island. My luxury (probably not allowable!) would be two cricket teams (with two umpires) playing an endless succession of five day test matches on a decent pitch.
- [How one Chorister unearthed Cathedral Music](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/06/07/how-one-chorister-unearthed-cathedral-music/) - If you were to ask nine-year old Arthur Bentley what he wants to be when he grows up, without hesitation he will tell you – a Paleontologist, “just like Dean Lomax”. But earlier this year, it wasn’t fossils which Arthur discovered, but rather a new hobby which has quickly grown into a keen passion…
- [Weekly Reflection - Vivat Regina!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/06/03/weekly-reflection-vivat-regina/) - When I was a Mirfield student training for the priesthood it was generally expected that I would spend the hours not taken up by either church, lectures or meals in the confines of my room diligently writing essays. Of course, given the rich social life of the College I did no such thing...
- [Weekly Reflection - The Power of the Spirit](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/05/27/the-power-of-the-spirit/) - I was very privileged to be able to serve my curacy in the beautiful market town of Pickering, half way between Malton and Whitby, in the Diocese of York. Pickering’s Parish Church contains some impressive mediaeval wall paintings
- [Weekly Reflection - Lockdown Revisited](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/05/19/lockdown-revisited/) - Last Saturday I was due to take my goddaughter’s wedding in Leeds. It had been postponed twice because of the pandemic, so the day was much anticipated. Last Friday evening I was feeling sufficiently unwell so took take a lateral flow test. It was positive.
- [A warm welcome back to Revd Dr Kathryn Goldsmith](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/05/13/a-new-face-around-the-cathedral-revd-dr-kathryn-goldsmith/) - We are pleased to welcome Mother Kathryn back to Wakefield Cathedral, seconded to the cathedral clergy team until 31 August 2022.
- [Weekly Reflection - Vocations Sunday](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/05/05/weekly-reflection-vocations-sunday/) - 08 May is Vocations Sunday – celebrated by the mainline Christian churches worldwide. More about that shortly… now, please don’t stop reading when you see what my next sentence says: Do you worship idols?
- [Royal Recognition for Cathedral Volunteer](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/04/14/royal-recognition-for-cathedral-volunteer/) - We are delighted to share the news that our wonderful volunteer Chris Haigh will today be attending the Royal Maundy Service at Windsor Palace, receiving the Maundy Money in recognition for her contribution to Wakefield Cathedral over the past six decades.
- [Meet our new Development Manager](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/04/29/meet-our-new-development-manager/) - We are pleased to welcome Zoe Smith to Wakefield Cathedral as our new Development Manager. Read on to find out more about Zoe, her experience and what she is looking forward to in her new role.
- [Explore Prayer with free Prayer Cards](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/04/19/explore-prayer-with-free-prayer-cards/) - Hundreds of thousands of prayer cards have been delivered to churches and cathedrals in England and Wales – including Wakefield Cathedral – to help people find ‘comfort and hope in a world of uncertainty’.
- [Weekly Reflection - Love is come again](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/04/14/weekly-reflection-love-is-come-again/) - Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain, he that for three days in the grave had lain. Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen: love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
- [Weekly Reflection - Wandering Towards Holy Week](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/04/07/weekly-reflection-wandering-towards-holy-week/) - The other day I read a news story about the war in Ukraine which happened to mention that some Ukrainian and indeed Russian soldiers carry the text of Psalm 91 (known as the 'Soldier's Psalm') tucked into their army fatigues.
- [Weekly Reflection - Impossible Possible](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/03/24/weekly-reflection-impossible-possible/) - On Friday, the Church celebrates the Annunciation of the Lord, which was the announcement of the Angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary, that she is favoured and would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit. The whole episode is surrounded in perplexity and impossibility.
- [Weekly Reflection - The Psalms: A hymn book for the ages](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/03/18/weekly-reflection-the-psalms-a-hymn-book-for-the-ages/) - Every morning in the cathedral a group of clergy and laity gather to say Morning Prayer together. A central element of the service is the saying of the psalms, a wonderful collection of sacred hymns written over 2500 years ago for use in worship by the Jewish people.
- [National Day of Reflection 2022](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/03/18/national-day-of-reflection-2022/) - Wednesday 23 March 2022 marks the second annual National Day of Reflection, organised by Marie Curie as a day to come together to support the millions of people who are grieving, and remembering the family, friends, neighbours, and colleagues we’ve lost over the last two years.
- [Spire works... complete!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/03/11/spire-works-complete/) - We are delighted to announce that the ongoing spire works have now been completed. The works began in December 2021 and aimed to preserve the spire from further damage following years of erosion due to adverse weather conditions.
- [Peace Vigil for Ukraine](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/03/11/peace-vigil-for-ukraine/) - Wakefield Cathedral will be hosting a Peace Vigil on Wednesday 16 March as an expression of solidarity with the people of Ukraine, finishing with a service with dedicated prayers at 18:00 for those caught up in the conflict.
- [International Women's Day 2022](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/03/08/international-womens-day-2022/) - To celebrate International Women’s Day on Tuesday 08 March 2022, we caught up with Revd Charlene Smith - who was recently licensed as the new Priest Vicar of Wakefield Cathedral.
- [Announcement of new Canon Missioner](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/03/07/announcement-of-new-canon-missioner/) - It was announced on Sunday 06 March 2022 that the Revd Dr Philip Hobday, currently Vicar of Earley in the Diocese of Oxford, has been appointed as the next Canon Missioner of Wakefield Cathedral.
- [Weekly Reflection: From a distance](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/03/04/weekly-reflection-from-a-distance/) - One of the songs I remember hearing in my house growing up was ‘From a Distance’ by Nancy Griffith. It was also a hit for Bette Midler in 1990.
- [Wakefield Cathedral new website now live!](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/03/04/new-website/) - With thanks to the support of the Cultural Recovery Fund, we have today launched our new and improved website, providing a greater user experience for all visitors with some exciting new features too.
- [Bells to ring out for Ukraine](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/03/03/bells-to-ring-out-for-ukraine/) - At 12:00 today (Thursday 03 March 2022), Wakefield Cathedral will join with cathedrals and churches from across Europe in the ringing of bells as a show of solidarity for the people of Ukraine.
- [Weekly Reflection - Why do the nations rage...?](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/02/25/weekly-reflection-why-do-the-nations-rage/) - On Thursday 24 February 2022 we stand here again, clothed in nothing but the shreds of our lost illusions.
- [Cathedral news - Canon Missioner](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/01/17/cathedral-news-canon-missioner/) - It was announced in the weekend that Canon Peter will be stepping down from his role as Canon Missioner of Wakefield Cathedral at the end of March as he moves on to become the new Archdeacon of Hackney.
- [Weekly Reflection - Protecting God's Creation](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/01/28/weekly-reflection-protecting-gods-creation/) - January can be a difficult month for lots of reasons, certainly the cold weather, dark days and post-Christmas blues can get the better of us.
- [Mothers' Union Commissioning Service](https://www.wakefieldcathedral.org.uk/news/2022/01/20/mothers-union-commissioning-service/) - Wakefield Cathedral are delighted to be hosting this year's Mothers' Union Commissioning Service led by the Rt Revd Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds.

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