At our Heritage Open Day the Cathedral Mouse - Rufus - welcomed young people from across the region, along with their families and friends, as well as many other visitors. Huge thanks go to all those who volunteered and to the staff team for helping to tell the story of the Cathedral and the story of our City – a story which is principally about a community of faithful Christians and their journey as pilgrim people through the challenges and opportunities faced by each generation.
Our heritage is a powerful way of communicating the Christian gospel as it is the story of a faithful community of Christians living out the Gospel in their own age and context.
Rufus found himself in many guises: bishop, friar, knight, soldier and a few more beside – illustrating the broad range of individuals our community has touched through the generations. Those who came to the Cathedral will even have left with a chocolate Rufus!
Jesus helped people to interpret their context and also to make sense of their history.
To build on the encounters with God’s love chronicled by a faithful community over many generations, and to set people free when that had been interpreted in a way which had tied them down or restricted their perspective. Engagement with history and interpreting it for the contemporary age is both Christ like and deeply missional. It is something our whole Christian community should welcome and engage with.
You may not have had chance to meet Rufus the mouse at the open day, but I am sure he will return to prominence in the Cathedral many times. Whenever he appears we should give thanks for those who have worked hard to tell the story of the Cathedral, which is our story, and all those who through connecting with the past are drawn to a deeper enjoyment with the love of God in the present.
Canon Christopher Burke