On Sunday, 16th March at 6.30, the Cathedral Voluntary Choir will present a Sequence of Music and Readings for Palm Sunday.

The choir will sing a selection of works by composers such as Byrd, Tallis, J.S. Bach, Stainer and Leighton and these will be interspersed with biblical readings and poetry, particularly suited for Palm Sunday and Holy Week. There will also be organ music and a few congregational hymns. Free admission.

The Voluntary Choir continues to go from strength to strength, since the introduction of women and girls in 2006. We now have some 45 members!

I am keen to continue to recruit sopranos and altos. Those interested please contact me at the cathedral on 0161 833 2220.

We are looking forward to our Summer trip - this year, we will be singing services at Worcester Cathedral on 23rd and 24th August.

Three months down, three months to go in my post as Archives Assistant and a request to share my experience of the Archives and reveal what I have been up to, getting to know the remarkable collection that I have been lucky enough to encounter up the stone spiral staircase above the North porch.

Archives are sometimes described as the memory of an institution. The Friends of Manchester Cathedral celebrated their 70th Anniversary last December and I was able to produce for them service booklets and other memorabilia to help them plan their commemoration. In particular I was asked for details about Canon Peter Green, a driving force in the early twentieth century history of the Cathedral. The Friends had held a memorial service for him in the 1950s and I hoped the service booklet would fill in some of his biographical details. This was not to be the case; the booklet explains that there was no need to write about him at length for ‘he lived on in the hearts of them all.' In itself this is a striking and beautiful tribute, but without permanent records, the collective memory of an institution cannot survive as people come and go.

Our Cathedral was built by the people of Manchester for the people of Manchester.  It is in recognition of the Kingdom of God, a place of quiet prayer and reflection, a place for the Celebration of Christ, a place of peace and quiet and a place of religious musical excellence. In short, our Cathedral allows many to step out of the busy road of life and sit quietly in a place of peace that asks nothing in return other than gentle respect for others sharing this sacred space.

The Cathedral Community and the many of you who generously give gifts towards the work of the Cathedral and the Booth Centre supporting the less fortunate is greatly appreciated. The fabric of the building needs constant repair and upgrading, not an easy task within a grade 1 listed building, but a task that is lovingly accepted and generously supported. Wherever possible work is carried out by volunteers.

Manchester Cathedral has a historic past as a Collegiate Church dating back to 1215. Plans are now being put in place to celebrate our roots and also play a more significant part in the future development of the city and diocese, and especially in the ongoing plans for regeneration of the Medieval Quarter of the city.

The Cathedral's ‘Vision 2012' includes significant plans to redevelop the precinct around the Cathedral as part of our desire to preserve and develop the heritage and history of the Cathedral and the surrounding area.

Implicit in this plan is the proposed new Manchester Medieval Experience, to be a project of the Cathedral and Chetham's School, most probably to be housed in the Vallins Building at the school. We need to consider how Fennel Street could be developed to provide the appropriate links between the Cathedral and the School.