We are delighted to announce that tomorrow, (Sunday 4th October), our Adult Choir will be singing together at the 11.00am Mass, for the very first time since March.
As you can imagine there has been a lot of thorough and hard work to allow this to happen and a thorough and robust risk assessment has been carried out, taking in the specific government guidance around the Greater Manchester local restrictions, the performing arts and the safe use of places of worship, as well as additional advice from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
As such, the choir’s return will look slightly different from normal. You will notice that the choir won’t participate in the entrance procession, in order to keep sufficient distance from the congregation. Choristers will be distanced at least 2 metres apart from each other and will also be in sub-groups of no more than six individuals, in order to adhere to the ‘Rule of Six’, with sub-groups being kept apart at all times during choral activity.
Our Director of Music, Alex Patterson, has worked extremely hard in preparation for the choir’s return and is looking forward to once again being able to lead the choir at Mass:
“I’m delighted that we’re now in a position to make music again in the glorious acoustic of the Cathedral. The choir is as much its own community and being able to sing together after such a long break comes as a blessed relief for us all as we adapt to this ‘new normal’. We hope that our contribution to the Mass continues to uplift and inspire during these challenging times.”
We are extremely grateful to our choristers who are returning to singing under such challenging circumstances and very much look forward to hearing their beautiful music which will beautifully enhance our liturgies.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our cathedral staff and wonderful volunteers who have worked tirelessly, not only to enable our choir to return, but in facilitating the safe reopening of our mother church in very challenging circumstances in these recent months – thank you to them for all that they have done and continue to do.
We hope that you will join us tomorrow to hear our wonderful choir. Bishop John will celebrate Mass at 11.00am. You can join us via the live stream at:
