The repair and refurbishment of CNS is now completed. A new walkway to West House has also been laid. You can see some of these changes in the overhead photo above. Those at the Nave may have noticed some new sound speakers, the repositioned Sound and AV control desk (at the back) and the new “Ascension” Chapel at the north side of the Nave. It will take a while for the teams to get the sound right, so do be patient. All in all, we can expect better and more distributed sound. It will also take some time to furnish the new chapel. In due course, we will also explore linking Graham White Chapel with the Nave, mirror-imaging the way South Transept is integrated.
A lot of hard work has gone into it and we want to thank our staff, Kevin Quek and Dennis Low, Lee Chi Kuan, who co-chairs the Building Development Committee (BDC), and Revd Peter Cook. We are grateful for the many good team decisions made along the way as everyone was motivated to work towards what was best for this house of worship whilst keeping within reasonable costs. Work has also begun on the restoration of our organ pipes, made possible by a generous donation from one of our members. This is both a musical-improvement and heritage-restoration project. The project will take a year to finish as the expertise to restore the pipes can only be done abroad. Work has also started on the repairing and repainting of some of the walls in the Nave. However, some of the unsightly patches will remain for a while as a long-term solution is still being worked on.
The Senior Staff team had an inspiring and participative Planning Retreat recently. We have decided on the theme, “Pursuing the Heart of God”, a fitting one for 2018 which has been declared a “Year of Prayer” by our Diocese and the National Council of Churches. In my Vicar Writes two Sundays back, I wrote an article on “Pursuing the Heart of God.” This can be read on our website. One of the steps we are taking is to make our daily lectionary readings more accessible using our app “St Andrew’s Cathedral SG” (check for info in the Bulletin’s notice page). We want to encourage many of you to consider using it for a year, either following both the morning and evening prayer readings or just using a single set. We will also insert prayer items that will help guide us to pray together as a Cathedral and community.
On 26 & 27 January 2018, we will be having our Leaders Conference. There, we will share more deeply about our plans for the year. From February onwards, we want to build upon our Cathedral@Prayer, renaming it “Prayer & Praise” and putting more effort to give it the attention it deserves. Most important of all, the key to putting in “more effort”, is our participation as a Cathedral and making it our top priority.
