Welcome to our July 2025 e-News!
Minster Musings
This month the Church celebrates St Benedict, whose legacy across mainland Europe can still be seen and felt today. Monastic ruins provide a rich heritage to visit, and the Benedictine charism pervades many Cathedrals and Major churches across the UK. Our own Minster here at Halifax was influenced by Benedictine monks from Cluny as they looked to build places of worship both here in Yorkshire and in Lewis in Sussex. That charism lives on through our Strategic Plan reflecting not only the Five Marks of Mission, but also Benedictine themes of daily worship and hospitality. When we ask ourselves the question why do we exist, the answer is in order to provide worship and adoration to the God who made us, and who in Jesus Christ, came to save and redeem us. Benedictine Communities worship seven times a day – here at Halifax we worship three times a day, providing structure to each weekday, and punctuating the day with prayer to God on behalf of the whole church and the world, whilst everyone else is busy at work, school, and home. This is our calling.
We also offer hospitality each and every day of the year, to growing thousands of visitors and pilgrims, who come to enjoy the heritage, for our cultural programme, for worship, for conferences and meetings, in times of joy and celebration and times of sorrow and lament. We welcome all people into the Minster as if we were welcoming Christ into our own home. As I write we are coming to the end of the Summer Festival, in which we have welcomed hundreds of performers and visitors. We have hosted brass bands, choirs, orchestras, exhibitions, and Festival acts of worship. None of this could happen without the hard work of staff and volunteers, front of house and behind the scenes. This month I have an opportunity to say a heart felt thank you to everyone who has helped make the Festival a success this year and for the hours of volunteering that have been given.
Some of you will be aware that we have had a problem with the organ, and that some leather has perished leaving the ‘great’ section of the organ unregulated and almost unplayable. The leather was a 100 years old, and will take time to take away, restore, and then return. It could not have come at a more inconvenient time but that is always going to be the case with a heritage instrument needing a million pounds to rebuild it, and that we continue to repair things when they break down, and keep the ‘Halifax sound’ alive.
The Minster Strategic Plan maps out for the Minster Council the priorities for the coming years, and the current plan runs out next year – so watch this space as we begin the process of renewing it in line with Calderdale’s Vision 2034 – of which I’ve written in the Halifax Courier this week. To this end, our investment in the music department continues at pace, with the standard of music soaring to new heights under the leadership of Charlie Murray as Director of Choral Music, and Sean Montgomery and Anthony Gray as the Minster Organists, not forgetting Edwin Field as Organ Scholar. The Minster Council has instructed the Diocesan Registrar to act on our behalf in taking over a large unit within Causey Hall that will become the new Song School, and be available for other meetings and events. This will release the current Song School to become organised storage space, and for all the storage currently in the Barnabas Chapel, to move down stairs. The Barnabas Chapel will become the new Clergy Vestry, with the Servers being relocated in the existing clergy vestry. All of which we hope to complete by the end of August and ready for the new choir term in September. This will be an exciting project that will also relocate the Minster Office as we continue to expand the number of employees and volunteers required to run the Minster as we continue to move forward in realising the vision that God has for us here. The last few months have seen an increase in numbers attending Sunday morning worship – now regularly up to 150 people of all ages and truly diverse. My challenge to all of us is to try and make that 200, and I can’t do that on my own, but only with your help. There is the gauntlet for the next Strategic Plan!
Here’s wishing you all a lovely Summer, and a chance to slow down and recreate – because it will be Christmas before we know it (176 sleeps until Christmas Day)!!
Canon Hilary Barber
Vicar
June in the Minster
Culturedale came to the Minster on June 15th, with a performance by the English Chamber Orchestra including the Ralph Vaughan-Williams’ ‘Lark Ascending’. The concert described, as ‘one of the finest heard in a number of years’ was to a large audience and the hope is that the legacy of Culturedale continues to bring world class music to West Yorkshire.
The month also saw the Cube Choir’s Midsummer “We will sing!” concert and the start of the Summer Festival. (Full review next month!) June 28th saw the Minster host the finals of the British Brass Band Conductor’s Competition with 10 competitors from around the world conducting both Hammonds and Elland Silver Bands. The competition is already booked to return to the Minster for 2026 – don’t miss it!
July in the Minster
Our Thursday @ One lunchtime organ concerts are held weekly through the summer months and provide a great opportunity to meet each other over lunch before enjoying an hour of varied and entertaining music. Our hot and cold buffet lunches are just £7 and the concerts are FREE with a retiring collection towards the upkeep of the Minster’s organs.
Whilst the Summer Festival may have finished, the Minster continues to host a number of concerts, including 3 school concerts in the next fortnight and candlelit tribute nights to Adele on Friday 11th and Whitney Houston on February 18th. Tickets are going fast and are on sale via the Minster website.
This play promises to be something not to be missed. It has received rave reviews across the country, do try to attend if you are able!
Minster Branded Clothing
Last call! Dominika Kwiatkowska, the Operations and Finance Assistant is placing this year’s order for t-shirts, fleeces and hoodies this Friday, July 11th.
Parishioner Profile
Name: Sue Baines-MacNeill
Favourite colour: Blue because it is the colour of my eyes, it is the colour of the seas and is the colour of our planet.
Favourite music: I love a brass band – probably Highland Cathedral arranged for pipes and brass band, and early music: Tallis’ Spem in Alium Favourite food: vegetable or fish curry, but toast and marmalade is my comfort food.
Thing most proud of: retaining my curiosity
100-word Bio: I grew up in Luddenden Foot, initially within the small triangle of home, church, and school. My mother was a ledger clerk and my father a tanner. Until I was eight, I was an only child. Dad captained a Boys’ Brigade Company, and when Cameron, my brother, was old enough, my mother started the Life Boys. (I joined in much later when my son was an Anchor Boy.) Attending Sowerby Grammar School broadened my horizons. I joined in everything, games, music, drama, any subject. There was always pressure, however, from my grandma, for whom 94% in an exam was simply not enough! Looking back, I understand better the expectations laid on the post-war generation, for whom family members had fought and suffered deprivation. It left me with a perfectionism hard to shake off. For years I wanted to be a nurse, but school steered me towards A levels and university. I’m no academic, but my time at Nottingham opened my eyes to the wider world and I formed some lasting friendships. Only after graduation did I have singing lessons. I’d always sung, but in my twenties I discovered the joys of choral singing, with my first Messiah. I grew up in the Congregational Church but, as an adult, whilst singing in a big local choir, I was invited to join St Ann’s, Manchester, where the beauty of the Anglican liturgy quite bowled me over! My 30-odd years as an NHS manager meant that I lived and worked in various places, London, Manchester, Bradford, and Harrogate. The best bits were in primary care in London, and, in Bradford, commissioning (ie trying to fund) non-acute services like those for people with learning disabilities. When I retired, however, I got a proper job, in a Day Surgery Unit. Apart from work and singing I like hands-on stuff like gardening and knitting. During those early retirement years my faith took on more meaning. Life hadn’t been straightforward: I was divorced, a single parent, I’d had surgery for a potentially lifethreatening condition, and my father had died. And, to be honest, church wasn’t doing much for me. I was forced to take a hard look at myself. Over the next few years I did some studying and training, became a volunteer, and joined the Third Order of St Francis. I also met Charlie, and we were married in 2004. (That’s the MacNeill bit). And now, life has come almost full circle, and my favourite place at present is probably Halifax. Thank you for the welcome I’ve received at the Minster
