Thousands attend Cathedral Advent Processions

Tuesday, 5 December 2023 00:00

This weekend Salisbury Cathedral celebrated the start of Advent with three spectacular Advent Processions attended by around 3,500 people.

Regarded by many as the un-missable prelude to the Christmas season, each of the three From Darkness to Light services began with the Cathedral plunged into total darkness and silence, broken only when the Advent Candle was lit, and a solo voice rang out.

In keeping with tradition, each service featured two large and colourful processions made up of nearly a hundred people, including the Bishop of Salisbury, Dean of Salisbury, Cathedral Canons, and full Cathedral choir (boys, men and girls), which made their way around the ancient building.

Image: Finnbarr Webster

At the conclusion of the service, the medieval space was aglow from West to East with the light of 1300 flickering candles, movingly anticipating the coming of Christ in the season of Advent.

On all three nights, the Cathedral Choir was conducted by Salisbury Cathedral’s Director of Music, David Halls and was joined by a plainsong choir singing from the West End Gallery. John Challenger, Assistant Director of Music, played the organ.

Image: Finnbarr Webster

The Very Revd Nicholas Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury, said: “From Darkness to Light is honest about the turmoil that engulfs our world today. At the service’s beginning, the Cathedral is plunged into deep darkness, and our thoughts turn to those ending horror in Ukraine, in Israel, in Gaza, and in many other places.

"But Advent does not allow our trauma to overwhelm us. Instead, as candles are lit - one by one - we hear the ancient promise that God has not abandoned us, and that in the Christ child, he has chosen to be with us, and to be with us always”.

As the clergy and choir processed down the Nave at the conclusion of the service, they walked beneath a series of powerfully affecting textile paintings hung high above them, part of a solo exhibition by the artist Shezad Dawood that is currently installed in the Cathedral.