Cathedral bids to be player in big league
Work on a modern wing of St John’s is almost complete. The Narthex will provide a new focus for visitors to Norwich’s second cathedral.
According to the Cathedral Dean, Father James Walsh, the building is “a milestone on the journey to make St John’s a player in the big league among iconic buildings of Norwich. The cathedral has much to offer people of all faiths or none and every walk of life.”
The £2.8 million project will open during the Roman Catholic cathedral’s centenary year of 2010. The plan is to extend the cathedral’s educational arm, attracting over 7000 school children annually. The Narthex will also serve as a venue for arts and music. The Cathedral staff say this is a new chapter for the neo-Gothic building, ensuring that its spiritual significance and history are better understood.
View across city at dusk from cathedral
These developments come at a time of shortage of Roman Catholic priests. In a letter to parishioners, Bishop Michael, head of the Diocese of East Anglia, warned they could lose a third of all their priests in the next ten years. The average age of current parish priests is 59. “We need to take those figures very seriously. Ongoing change is inevitable.”
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