NORWICH CATHEDRAL

08 May 2019

Fr Michael’s skills have once again been in demand recently as he created choir desks for Norwich Cathedral.

Daniel Justin (B08), Master of Music at St John the Baptist Cathedral in Norwich, commissioned Fr Michael to build a set of Choir desks for members of the choir to rest their music on, and delivery was taken of the final instalment just before Easter.

The Choir desks are designed to be flexible (in that they can be moved to different parts of the Cathedral), but generally, their permanent home is in the Chancel of the Cathedral, near to the Bishop’s Throne. The engravings ‘Alleluia’, ‘Alpha and Omega’, ‘Pax’ and ‘Caritas’ are present on the Choir desks. Fr Michael also made a conductor’s stand, which bears the engraving ‘Ausculta’ – the first word from the Rule of St Benedict, meaning ‘Listen’.

The building was consecrated as a Cathedral in 1976 at the creation of the Diocese of East Anglia, and became the second largest Cathedral in England, after Westminster Cathedral. The Cathedral was built by George Gilbert Scott Jr. (his son built the Nave at Downside), with money provided by Henry Fitzalan-Howard (15th Duke of Norfolk).