Dean's Diary (From Worcester News)

Dean's Diary

8:55am Wednesday 9th January 2008

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The BBC has been in Worcester Cathedral, televising the services on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Their professionalism, patience and good humour made them a delight to work with, and the massive BBC vans parked for days outside the cathedral were a splendid advertisement for our Christmas services.
People asked me what it was like presiding at a service being watched by two or three million people. At one level, of course, it was nerve-wracking.
The BBC warned us that every twitch, scratch and wriggle would be caught on camera. Learning to sit very still was quite difficult.
At another level, the size of the congregation made no difference at all. Every time the Church celebrates the Eucharist (which is the central act of Christian worship, also called the Mass, and Holy Communion) each small bit of the Christian body is spiritually connected to every other bit.
The Eucharist is fellowship with Christians all over the world. It is fellowship with Christians of every century, all the saints and martyrs down the ages. And it doesn’t stop there.
The central prayer of the Eucharist includes the words, “with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven…” That’s an infinitely large congregation at every church service. That’s why tedious arguments over numbers of people attending church services are pretty irrelevant.
Though, of course, it’s good when people do come to church in large numbers. As they did this Christmas, hundreds and hundreds packing Worcester Cathedral for carol services day after day throughout December, together with all the other churches of the city. I hope you were among them.