Ripon gets behind Wilfrid1300 festival

Ripon’s already colourful streets have been brightened up still further with the addition of flags and banners marking the Cathedral’s Wilfrid1300 Festival, a year long series of events to celebrate the 1300th anniversary of St Wilfrid’s death.  The city’s Chamber of Trade are supporting the Festival with a £6000 grant for 20 lamppost banners and a further 30 flags which will decorate the streets from Easter weekend onwards.

The banners will add to a series of festivities throughout the city over Easter including a week long photographic exhibition in shop windows along Kirkgate (11th-18th April) and the Cathedral’s own Easter Bulb Spectacular from  April the 12th - 27th. 

Thousands of daffodil, hyacinth and tulip bulbs will be on display throughout the Cathedral, marking the end of the austere period of Lent, and the start of Easter celebrations.

(Pictured above left to right: Ian Horsford, Cathedral Administrator; Paul Darbyshire of Ripon's Tourist Information Centre; Ven Janet Henderson, Archdeacon of Richmond; Cllr Bernard Bateman; and Don Grundy of 'the Deli on Duck Hill').

This month also sees the second St Wilfrid’s Lecture. On April 23rd at 7pm, Professor David Jasper will speak in the series, The Role of the Church in Contemporary Society, with a talk on the Church and the Arts.

David Jasper is Professor of Literature and Theology, University of Glasgow and Visiting Professor, York St John University.  Has been an ordained Anglican priest for 32 years.  He published “The Sacred Desert” in 2004, and a second volume entitled “The Sacred Community” will be published in the summer of 2009.  Tickets for the St Wilfrid Lecture are free and can be reserved from the Cathedral Office on 01765 603462.

For more on the Wilfid 1300Festival click here