Even a power cut, which stopped the organ playing, could not dampen the sense of excitement and achievement as Southwark Cathedral’s Education Centre celebrated ten years of growth and development.

In the presence of Lord Dearing, those who had helped to bring the idea of the Centre to fruition, the original and existing staff, volunteers, members of the Trustees and some of the 60,000 children who had visited the Centre in the last ten years, gathered together to give thanks for the work of the Education Centre and all those involved with it. They also prayed for its future development.

The Rev Garry Swinton, who was the Succentor at the Cathedral when the Education Centre was merely an idea, told of its beginnings and of the work of the then Canon Missioner, now Bishop of Thetford, David Atkinson, and of the, then, newly arrived Dean’s encouragement. He read letters and poems from the children who had visited the Cathedral and set the stage for a presentation of current work, which involves curriculum based trails and experiences from the Education Officer, Sandra Newnham and pupils from St Peter’s School, Walworth and St Saviour and St Olave’s.

The Dean, The Very Rev. Colin Slee, spoke of the contribution that the youngsters who visit the Education Centre make to the life of the Cathedral and spoke of their vibrant imaginations and how they offer adults better ways to teach the gospel because they ask about things that we have forgotten about or failed to notice. He said that he hoped that there would be 100,000 children through the Education Centre in the next ten years!

Following the service a reception was held in the Education Centre itself at which Lord Dearing spoke. He spoke of the work of the Centre and how the stone of the Cathedral ‘can speak’ to the children and to others. In noting the importance of the children being able to have a role, as a priest or a monk or other character, during their visit he said that he felt sure that Jesus would be delighted that the little children were in his Cathedral.

Ends.