New Dean of Chichester Cathedral appointed

SussexWorld

Edward Dowler is the new Dean of Chichester Cathedral, it was announced today. Here he speaks to Sussex World about how he feels about the appointment and what's to come in the near future.

Transcript

00:00 I suppose I wanted to start by asking what the appointment means to you, just what your initial

00:04 responses are and how you're feeling. Well it's very exciting to be coming to Chichester,

00:10 because I've been in Sussex for quite a long time, I know the cathedral well and I know the city a

00:17 little bit and so it's very exciting to be coming to serve such a wonderful cathedral and city.

00:24 And I know that you've worked previously in churches and communities in Hastings and sort

00:29 of East Sussex along that area. Is there a hope for you to be able to sort of foster

00:33 a connection between Chichester and communities like that, if that makes any sense as a question?

00:38 Yeah it does make sense. One of the peculiarities really of our diocese,

00:44 of it's the diocese of Chichester but it includes the two counties of East and West

00:49 Sussex so it's like a kind of strip across the south coast and I think one of the difficult

00:57 things about the geography of the diocese, from me being in East Sussex as I have been,

01:02 is in relating to the cathedral of our diocese in Chichester. So I am hoping that one of the

01:08 things that I'll be able to do is to try as far as possible with transport links and all the rest of

01:13 it to make things as joined up as possible so that we are a cathedral for the whole of East and West

01:21 Sussex together. And what would that look like, is that sort of

01:25 events that take place in different geographical areas, is that events with a sort of more open

01:30 approach to people from other parts of Sussex, so just how would that manifest? Or is it too early

01:35 to say, that's also fine? No it's a good question. I think there are a number of things, obviously

01:42 to make the cathedral here as welcoming a space for people to make the journey for particular

01:49 services and events or perhaps to stay over for a bit. Then I think there's also the possibility

01:56 for, as we do sometimes, we have some of the cathedral for example, the choir goes out to

02:02 parishes in East Sussex or lectures that are put on at the cathedral are also rerun in venues in

02:11 the East of the diocese. And I think also the other thing really is that since the pandemic

02:18 we're all now more used to connecting via electronic means and so I think, I'm not quite

02:26 sure how this will work, but I think that that probably does create a bit of an opportunity

02:32 for the cathedral to have to reach people across the diocese and across the two counties

02:39 rather more easily than has been possible via those sort of means. That makes total sense. And

02:44 is there anything in particular you'd like to, suppose the word is, emphasize or lead on or

02:49 prioritize, so during your tenure as dean, anything that you're particularly interested in

02:53 promoting I guess? Well I think the cathedrals are churches, so they're places of prayer,

03:06 they're spiritual places and so people coming for that reason and coming to find inspiration,

03:12 hopefully ultimately coming to find God, so that's part of it. I think cathedrals also have

03:18 an educational role and so fostering in the widest sense, you know, things like lectures,

03:24 study in its widest sense, but also concerts, exhibitions, all of those things which I think

03:34 do happen already, it's just a cathedral, but I think to try to have the widest range of people

03:43 coming in for activities that are sort of, which are related to the central purpose of being a

03:50 cathedral, so that's what I'd hope for. I'm not quite sure at the moment how all of that will

03:57 look, but I think that's what I want to encourage.

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