“2025 is a special year. It will mark 950 years since this Cathedral moved from Selsey to Chichester. It will also be the Diocesan Year of Faith, as it will be 1700 years since the Council of Nicea, one of the key defining moments in the Christian faith. Throughout 2025 we will be celebrating our faith, both in the Cathedral and across the Diocese. (There will be more detailed publicity about this later in the Spring and we look forward to sharing this with you).
The Cathedral needs your help. We are planning an exhibition in the Cathedral from February – November 2025 and we would like you, the parishes of the Diocese, to help us tell the story of our faith – what it means to us and why it matters.
We have four questions for you.
1) As you think back over the last 950 years of the Christian faith in the Diocese of Chichester, do you have any particular heroes or heroines? Who are they and why do they matter to you? (If your church is an Anglo-Saxon one, you can think back to the arrival of St Wilfrid in 681!)
2) Is there anyone or anything commemorated in your church that is unusual or that you find interesting? Who or what is it? How does it speak to you of the Christian faith? (For example, you may have a Bible donated in memory of someone who died in battle. You may have a memorial or tombstone to someone who did something memorable.)
3) Do you have any Christian memorabilia in your house or church? (For example, a pocket Gospel handed to a soldier on the beach at Dunkirk or a medieval pilgrim badge. Perhaps you have a cookery book in which someone has written prayers or a child’s sampler with verses from Scripture.)
4) What makes an exhibition interesting for you? What would it need to include to make you visit the Cathedral?”
Vanessa Baron, Chichester Cathedral
If you might be interested in being the link for our parish, please let Tom or Susie know.