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JANUARY THEMES

The Right Rev June Osborne, Dean (Monday 4th January 2010)

Not many people love January. The excitement of Christmastide and Epiphany soon gives way to the hibernation of short winter days and few people venture forth without good cause. In the Cathedral diary it certainly looks like the quietest time of the year but behind the scenes this month always sees a crucial and testing activity. Like all organisations whose financial year begins in April the Chapter has to set a budget for this coming year. And like all financial enterprises – families, businesses, public bodies and other charities – we are expecting our exercise of budgeting in this next phase to be especially challenging. We all know that there is very much less cash around than there was just a couple of years ago, not because of any carelessness but simply because things are tough. In the Cathedral we too are going to have to spend less and where we can increase our income. We will keep life stable but that will mean managing some lean years.

A budget is a way of describing what we expect to spend in the next 12 months and it reflects our essential priorities. For several years now we have laid out our aspirations. These include shaping our daily life around our commitment to prayer, to let our passion for social justice define and challenge us (being a value driven organisation which aims always to follow best practice) to finish the Major Repair Programme which we have funded year on year since 1986 and to prepare for some future projects which would carry our ambitions forward.

We try always to spend what resources we have in pursuit of such things, and to maintain things that have become precious to us; such as our two choirs. But the simple reality is that we can only survive and develop because of the generosity of those who either in past generations or in our present day have made contributions to our income.

In our worship this month we celebrate the Epiphany message of how God makes Himself present in ordinary life, about following the way of Christ and becoming faithful disciples. Being wise, being faithful, revealing the things of God in material life – these are January themes and we hope to hold tight to such spiritual realities as we set out priorities for the coming year. We might not love January but in the Cathedral we do things this month which will determine the year to come.

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