The season of Advent has begun, and it marks the start of a new Church year and a renewed sense of hope and expectation. Thankfully we are able to return to the celebration of public Masses for the month of December and with a vaccine looming on the horizon and some level of family Christmas achievable, the sombre mood of the last few weeks has been lifted. But we are not letting our guard down in any way and all the services that I will highlight will still continue with the same careful restrictions in place as before.From 3 December our interim schedule of Masses restarts. Namely a daily public Mass at 12 midday, Saturday at 10am then a later Vigil Mass at 4pm and the two Sunday Masses at 9am and 11am. The Advent Sequence service of readings and choral music, and the other Advent Choral Services and a series of short Advent Reflections by Father Chris McCoy are all available online on the Cathedral website.
Looking ahead to the end of Advent we will be having two public services of ‘Carols from the Met’ on 19 and 20 December at 6pm. For these two services along with Masses at some of the most popular times over Christmas you will need to apply for tickets. These can be obtained directly from Eventbrite or through the link on our Cathedral website. These tickets are free but because of social distancing there will only be a limited number of 300 per service so you will need to book early.
The Christmas services begin with the First Vespers of Christmas at 3pm on Christmas Eve. The Vigil Mass of Christmas is at 6pm and later Archbishop Malcolm will preside at Midnight Mass at 12 midnight. Tickets are needed for all these. On Christmas Day there will be Masses at 8,9 and 11am with tickets required for the 11am Mass.
Please check our website for more details. On behalf of all at the Cathedral I wish you all a joyful and blessed Christmas.