Archbishop Vincent Nichols - Installation Blog

To keep up to date with the Mass of Installation, please now look at the stories on the Home Page. The Order of Service is now available on the main story about the Mass of Installation.

More rehearsals today by the BBC - and we include a photo of the 'stand-in' for Archbishop Nichols, Alan Newman who has been responsible for the production of the Orders of Service for Vespers and the Mass of Installation.

Deacons will play an important part in the Mass of Installation. In the Catholic Church, the sacrament of Holy Orders, one of the seven sacraments, embraces the three orders of Deacons, Priests and Bishops. Together they make up 'the clergy'.

In the first centuries of the Christian church, deacons were an active and separate group of clergy, serving the Bishop of a diocese in particular, and charged with looking after the poor, reading the Gospel at Mass, and taking care of practical matters in the life of a diocesan community.

 By the eighth century or so the order of deacons disappeared, becoming a temporary state for a man on the way to being ordained a priest. The Second Vatican Council took the decision in 1965 to restore the deacons as a permanent order, allowing them to be either celibate or married. They are ordained to the three ministries of Charity, the Altar and the Word.

In the ceremony of installation of the new Archbishop of Westminster,  these elements are brought out in a number of ways. The two 'throne deacons' will stand on either side of the Archbishop, symbolising the special relationship of deacons to their bishop, ready to serve the needs of the poor on his behalf. The 'Mass deacon' will prepare the altar, hand the paten with the bread to be consecrated to the Archbishop at the offertory and pour the wine into the chalice for him. The 'Gospel deacon' will carry in the Book of the Gospels, and place it on the altar. He will carry it in procession to the pulpit where he solemnly reads the Gospel, the highpoint of the liturgy of the Word.

The Gospel deacon is Vincent Malone is preparing for ordination to the priesthood. who will be ordained a priest later this year. The other three are all permanent deacons, Gordon Nunn, Neville Dyckhoff and Anthony Clark, who are attached to parishes and who are involved in education and various parish ministries.

Tuesday was the day the BBC moved into the Cathedral! This afternoon has seen cameras and lighting installed, and seemingly endless snakes of cables. This post is shorter than usual, however there are more photos than usual, which we hope makes up for the shortage of words. We feature the Archbishop's Crozier in today's photo gallery - this will be passed from Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor to Archbishop Vincent Nichols during the Mass of Installation. It forms part of Westminster Cathedral's Cardinal Howard Plate - an Italian silver-gilt service of ecclesiastical plate, formerly the property of Cardinal Edward Howard and presented for the then future Cathedral of Westminster on 10 November 1893. One note of advice for anyone planning on attending the Service of Vespers tomorrow is that the Victoria Line may be closed, so if you were planning to get to Victoria by the Victoria Line, you may need to make alternative arrangements.

E-mails have been rushing around the Cathedral complex as final revisions are made to the Order of Service for the Installation of the new Archbishop of Westminster. The ceremony of the Reception and Installation of the Archbishop of Westminster will be carried out according to the ancient Catholic rite used in similar circumstances for the Reception and Installation of the Archbishops of Canterbury prior to the Reformation. At 11.45 on Thursday 21, the Sanctuary Procession will enter the Cathedral. It's a pretty impressive list! A Master of Ceremonies Thurifer and Boat Bearer Crucifer and Acolytes The Altar Servers A Master of Ceremonies Ecumenical Guests Gospel Deacon Mass Deacon Two Masters of Ceremonies Deans of the Archdiocese of Westminster Concelebrating Priests Monsignori The Vicar General Concelebrating Abbots and Provincials Two Masters of Ceremonies Visiting Bishops Bishops of England and Wales Archbishops of England and Wales Auxiliary Bishops of Westminster A Master of Ceremonies Visiting Cardinals The Apostolic Nuncio A Master of Ceremonies Crozier Bearer Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor At the beginning of the service, the Chapter, led by the Provost, and the Auxiliary Bishops receive the Archbishop at the West Door of the Cathedral and the Archbishop then makes his first solemn entry into his Cathedral. Thomas Wilson, Precentor, has said that one of the most thrilling moments will take place at 12.00 noon when the Archbishop arrives at the West Door, accompanied by his Chaplain and Master of Ceremonies. The Cathedral bell will be rung and the doors opened. The Archbishop will kneel at the threshold, surrounded by the great marble medallions on which are representations of twelve sainted Archbishops of Canterbury. A fanfare will sound. The Archbishop will stand and enter the Cathedral narthex where he will be greeted by the Provost. The Provost will present the Archbishop with a crucifix which the Archbishop will kiss. He will then receive holy water from the Provost with which he will sprinkle himself and the assembled clergy. In Canterbury, then a monastic Cathedral, the right to install the Archbishop belonged to the Prior. In Westminster that function is fulfilled by the Provost, who is the Dean of the Cathedral Chapter. The rite is adapted from the ancient rite taken from a Pontifical used at Canterbury in the time of Archbishop Chichele (1414-1443) and preserved in the British Museum.

Today has seen the final allocation of tickets for Vespers and the Mass of Installation and the Installation Team have been busy putting tickets into envelopes and waiting to see if the final number of acceptances matches the total number of places available. If you have been allocated a ticket, you should be receiving it in the post in the next few days. If not, then please do not ask for a ticket, as none are left. As you can see from the photos below, the Cathedral has been divided into a number of seating blocks to which particular categories of guests, such as Ecumenicals, Parishioners and Ambassadors, have been allocated. The most important area of the Cathedral is, of course, the Sanctuary, and for the Mass of Installation, present on the Cathedral Sanctuary will be 18 Canons, 60 Bishops, 27 Monsignori, 9 Provincials, 3 Deans together with Cardinal Roger Mahoney, Cardinal Keith O'Brien and Cardinal Sean Brady and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Papal Nuncio, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London.

MUSIC UPDATE

We've received an update about the Music for the Mass of Installation. James MacMillan has been commissioned to write two pieces: one for choir, organ, brass and timps, the other for choir a cappella.  Both are settings of texts from the pre-reformation rite of reception and installation of an Archbishop of Canterbury.

Other music will include 2 specially composed fanfares by Colin Mawby, a former Master of Music, and his setting of Ave verum corpus.  The mass setting is Palestrina's Missa Tu es Petrus, and the offertory motet is an 8-part Venetian setting of Iubilate Deo by Giovanni Gabrieli.  The Te Deum is sung to gregorian chant alternating with a fauxbourdon by Victoria.