Dear Kelly
The months have flown since the members of the NAMA visited us at the Cathedral on 4 July and we have carried out some repairs to the building and started landscaping some of the grounds. We have also launched a new website www.cathedral.im
I have attached an update of the work that has been undertaken and a brief note about some of the plans for the future and it would be appreciated if you could share this with your members, either on your blog, website or mailing list.
With every good wish to you all.
Val
Cathedral Isle of Man – the Island’s Cathedral – has launched a major campaign to develop the facilities on site for use not only of the worshipping community, but for the general public and visitors to the Island. The vision to expand the Cathedral’s offering is complex, and will require £10 million of investment:
Worship Space: Re-ordering and upgrading the Cathedral interior to create a first-class venue for civic, cultural and social events, in addition to its primary purpose as a place of worship.
Music and Education: New music facilities, including a purpose-built Song School with teaching facilities for local educational projects, in addition to a new Pipe Organ will see the great choral music tradition flourish on the Island.
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| Cathedral Isle of Man during the Flower Festival, and the NAMA visit. |
Visitor Experience: A series of seventeen conceptual gardens will be developed within the grounds, (12 telling the story of our Island and how Christianity has engaged with it and 5 with special themes)through visual and interactive methods. Teaching packs will be created to support curriculum education in the Island’s schools.
The 20thcentury garden, currently under construction, is particularly associated with internment during World War I. (Just outside our City was the largest internment camp in the British Isles with 24,500 ‘enemy aliens’ living on 22 acres of land). At the center of this garden we are commissioning a bronze sculpture (costing $55,000) that commemorates two global figures, both associated with the camp and both connected with the United States. Archibald Knox was a censor and made his reputation as a designer for Liberty of London and Josef Pilates was an internee and inventor of an exercise system which had its birth in the confines of internment. Knox, tried to make a life for himself in the United States, but it didn’t work out and you might be aware that Brad Pitt is an avid collector of Knox’s Celtic-art-nouveau designs and his son is named after Knox. Josef Pilates on the other hand migrated to New York in 1926 and became a United States citizen.
The 9 feet high sculptural design by Angela Patchett takes its inspiration from a Pilates movement and Archibald Knox’s Celtic-Art-Nouveau style (see picture at bottom of article).
Community Engagement: A refurbishment of the current Hall will provide community leisure facilities and will support community development through the creation of a Lychgate, opening up the Cathedral’s entrance and doubling up as the City’s bus terminus.
Endowment: A significant endowment fund will be built to ensure the Cathedral’s on-going structural health, in addition to choral musical provision for future generations.
Further details of each of the project areas can be found on the Cathedral’s new website www.cathedral.im
The Dean, the Very Revd Nigel Godfrey, and his team are delighted with progress to date, and with HRH The Princess Royal as their Patron, the Cathedral has already raised over £1 million. This has enabled development work to begin on various areas, updates of which can be seen on the website.
The Cathedral is now looking to reach out to supporters across the world, as well as on the Isle of Man, and would welcome communication from friends in the North American Manx Association.
Donation
The Campaign Manager Val Garrett can be contacted via campaign@cathedral.imor +44 (0)1624 844830 to discuss the projects and how to donate, including naming recognition for particularly generous gifts. Those wanting to make a gift in the US can do so tax effectively through Cathedral Isle of Man’s partner Cathedral in San Diego, the details are as follows: Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, 2728 Sixth Avenue, San Diego, CA 92103. Contributions should be clearly designated as being for Cathedral Isle of Man. For further information re giving via the Cathedral Church of St Paul please contact Erin Sacco Pineda (pinedaes@stpaulcathedral.org) or Christine Spalding (spaldingc@stpaulcathedral.org, 619-298-7261).
