LIVERPOOL METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL IS RECRUITING FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF BOY AND GIRL CHORISTERS

Runnymede St Edward’s has close links with Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral being a choir school along with St Edward’s College.

Choristers are chosen by audition and all receive an outstanding education at Runnymede St Edward’s (until Year 6) and St Edward’s College (from Year 7).

The boys lead a very busy life!

At Runnymede, the boys take part in early morning rehearsals (8am) to prepare the music of the weekly services and for many other special services and concerts. The boys also carry out their normal school activities, both academic and extra-curricular, as well as receiving vocal and instrumental tuition. Many former choristers have gone on to pursue professional musical careers.

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Liverpool. It is the heart of diocesan celebration and daily worship of God.

Shortly after the Catholic Diocese of Liverpool was established in 1850 the commission to design a Cathedral was entrusted to Edward Welby Pugin. Only the Lady Chapel of this Gothic design situated in Everton was completed before lack of funds brought work to a standstill, and 60 years passed before the idea of a Cathedral was reborn.

At the suggestion of Pope Pius XI, the new Cathedral was to be dedicated to Christ the King. The outbreak of war in 1939 interrupted building and only the Crypt was completed by 1958. By the end of the war costs had escalated so much that Lutyens’ grandiose scheme had to be abandoned. It was Archbishop Heenan who brought into reality a Cathedral expressing the new spirit of the Liturgy then being formulated by the second Vatican Council. A world-wide competition was launched in 1960 and Frederick Gibberd’s design was chosen. Building began in 1962 and on Whit Sunday, 14 May 1967, the completed Cathedral was consecrated.

Many important events have taken place since the opening of the Cathedral, notably the visit of the Queen in 1977, the National Pastoral Congress in 1980, the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1982, and the launch of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland in 1990.

The Cathedral is designed primarily for liturgical celebration. The vast circular space seats 2,300 people who can closely participate in the services taking place on the central sanctuary, where the High Altar, the Chair (“Cathedra”) of the Archbishop and the Ambo, from which the Word of God is proclaimed, form the principal focuses of the liturgy. The Blessed Sacrament Chapel under the pipes of the grand organ is set aside for private prayer and devotion.

On the Cathedral walls are embroidered hangings designed and made in the Cathedral Art Studio. Each of the chapels around the perimeter of the Cathedral contains works of art and devotion by contemporary artists, and the great concrete buttresses are adorned with a “Way of the Cross” (14 stations depicting Christ’s journey to Calvary) in manganese bronze by the Liverpool artist Sean Rice.