Lent Lectures at Lichfield Cathedral
A series of six lectures reflecting on the relationship of Church and State has also been announced and will take place every Thursday during Lent at 1pm in the Nave of Lichfield Cathedral. The lectures will also be complemented by free guided tours of the Cathedral every Thursday at 2pm, with an emphasis on its 17th century background.
2012 is also the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and a rare sealed, first edition will be on display in the north quire aisle throughout Lent.
The lectures programme is as
February 23: Dr Ian Atherton, Keele University
Edward Wightman and the religious intolerance of the Early Stuarts
(Wightman was the last person in England to be burnt at the stake for heresy. He died in Lichfield Market Square on 11 April 1612. We will mark the 400th anniversary of his death, in thanksgiving that it was the last execution of its kind).
March 1: Professor Ann Hughes, Keele University
The English Civil War and Puritan commonwealth
(Lichfield Cathedral was three times besieged during the Civil War, in 1643 twice and in 1646. The final siege caused considerable damage to the building. What was at stake in the Civil War for the contenders? Why was a Cathedral a contested space?)
March 8: Dr David Appleby, the University of Nottingham
The Restoration of the Monarchy and the 1662 ‘Great Ejection’
(Charles II’s statue stands outside the South Transept of Lichfield Cathedral, to honour his patronage of the rebuilding under Bishop Hacket between 1660 and 1670. In the north quire aisle during Lent, a treasure from our historic library will be on display: a ‘sealed’ copy of the 1662 Prayer Book: but the Church of England’s determination to enforce religious uniformity was not good news for the ‘non-Conformists’ ejected in that year).
March 15: The Revd Dr Pete Wilcox, Canon Chancellor of Lichfield Cathedral
The Book of Common Prayer and Coverdale’s psalms
(Every evening during term-time, the Cathedral’s choirs sing psalms appointed for the day from the translation in the BCP, which was the work of Miles Coverdale over a hundred years before. Why has this version of the Psalter endured?)
March 22: The Revd Wealands Bell, Canon Precentor of Lichfield Cathedral
Common Prayer? The BCP and Liturgical revision today
(The Sung Eucharist on Sunday mornings, and much of the rest of the Cathedral’s liturgy is drawn not from the BCP but from the contemporary ‘Common Worship’ book. What is the nature of common prayer today? Why should each church not do as it sees fit?)
March 29: Professor Nigel Biggar, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, Oxford; Director, McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life
Established for what? Church and State in 21st century England
(Would Jesus of Nazareth be at home in an established church? Is the mission of the Church of England helped or hindered by its close relationship with the crown? What future is there for an Established Church?)
A bookstall will be available each week, with relevant publications for sale.
