The Dean's Installation: 10th September 2011
In a ‘first’ for Newport Cathedral, the installation of the new Dean, Revd Canon Jeremy Winston, was streamed live to a congregation in St Mary’s Priory church in Abergavenny where Fr Jeremy has been vicar for the last eighteen years.
Teams of volunteers worked to make the Cathedral look its best for the ceremonial. Working around the scaffolding which is still in place for the roof restoration, furniture was moved, brass polished, flowers arranged, leaves gathered from the paths.
The celebration focussed on the role of the Cathedral as a centre of learning and hospitality in both the church and the civic communities.
The Mayor of Newport presented the new Dean with a facsimile of the city charter; a representative fo the Vice Chancellor of the University of Wales, Newport, presented a scroll of welcome; the Minor Canon presented him with a Breviary, and the Diocese’s Learning Development Adviser presented him with a copy of the Gospels.
Several pieces of music had been especially commissioned and were heard in public for the first time at the service. Fr Jeremy had himself written new verses for old hymns.
Modern music and technology blended with traditional ceremony to make this a day to remember in the life of the City of Newport and its Cathedral.