There are sometimes moments in the life of a community when the threads feel as though they are being loosened rather than woven. This is one of those moments.
Over the past weeks, we have said goodbye (or begun to prepare to say goodbye) to a number of members of staff who have served the Cathedral with care, creativity, and quiet faithfulness. Among them, I particularly want to name Lydia Rose, our Events and Marketing Officer. For the past eighteen months, and especially since Phil Lickley’s departure last summer, Lydia has carried a significant weight of responsibility with generosity and imagination. Many of the things we have come to take for granted: how we communicate, how we tell our story, how we invite others into it, have borne her unique mark.
Lydia now moves on to a new role as Design Faculty Technician at a school in Leeds. It is a good and fitting next step for her, even as it leaves a very real gap for us. We send her off with our gratitude and our prayers.
Her departure, alongside other staffing changes, brings us into a season that is, in truth, both practical and theological. Practically, it means that a significant amount of work will need to be redistributed during the vacancy. Inevitably, this comes with limits. There is only so much that a smaller team can carry without that carrying becoming unsustainable. And so, some work will need to be paused; not as a failure of ambition, but as an act of discernment.
One of those difficult decisions has been to pause this monthly congregational update for a time.
There is something counterintuitive here. In a moment of change the instinct is often to say more; to communicate more frequently and to fill the space. But there is also wisdom to know when to step back, when to allow a kind of provisionality to emerge. Not everything needs to be held together by constant output. Some things are held together by silent trust.
In the Cathedral’s vision, we speak of “creative tension” and this is built into the heart of the concept of a loom. This season feels like precisely that tension. Threads are being re-tied, patterns are not yet clear, and yet the loom remains. The work continues, even if the visible pattern feels interrupted.
In this time of pausing, I would encourage you to keep an eye on the What’s On section of the Cathedral website. The Featured Events through to September are up to date, and they offer a window into the ongoing life of this place: worship, music, conversation, encounter. The rhythm has not stopped; it is simply shifting.
I also want to encourage you to spend time with the rest of this update; particularly the listed news items and upcoming events. They are, in their own way, fragments of a larger story and signs of continuity amidst change and of a community that continues to gather, to pray, and to be transformed.
There is a temptation, in moments like this, to read change only as loss. But perhaps there is another way of seeing it. Not as a loosening that leads to unraveling, but as a necessary reworking of the threads so that something new, that we cannot yet fully see, might emerge.
As ever, thank you for your patience, your generosity, and your participation in the shared life of this Cathedral.
Revd. Canon Ned Lunn
P.S from Lydia – This has been a very special place to work – at first because of the history and beauty of the building, but mostly because of the lovely people that you can find in it! Thank you to everyone for your kindness and good humour during my time here.
Even with this monthly update on pause, you can stay up to date with news and events at Bradford Cathedral in a number of ways. If you prefer email communications, we share a weekly news sheet with bullet news and events listed after our service details. Get in touch on info@bradfordcathedral.org if you’d like to be added to this list.
The best way to see our upcoming events is via our Featured Events webpage. The same information is also available in our printed What’s On Guide, which you can pick up in the Cathedral nave.
We are also on Facebook and Instagram on @Bfdcathedral.