Edward Dowler is the new Dean of Chichester Cathedral, it was announced today. Here he speaks to Sussex World about how he feels about the appointment and what's to come in the near future.
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00:00 I suppose I wanted to start by asking what the appointment means to you, just what your initial
00:04 responses are and how you're feeling. Well it's very exciting to be coming to Chichester,
00:10 because I've been in Sussex for quite a long time, I know the cathedral well and I know the city a
00:17 little bit and so it's very exciting to be coming to serve such a wonderful cathedral and city.
00:24 And I know that you've worked previously in churches and communities in Hastings and sort
00:29 of East Sussex along that area. Is there a hope for you to be able to sort of foster
00:33 a connection between Chichester and communities like that, if that makes any sense as a question?
00:38 Yeah it does make sense. One of the peculiarities really of our diocese,
00:44 of it's the diocese of Chichester but it includes the two counties of East and West
00:49 Sussex so it's like a kind of strip across the south coast and I think one of the difficult
00:57 things about the geography of the diocese, from me being in East Sussex as I have been,
01:02 is in relating to the cathedral of our diocese in Chichester. So I am hoping that one of the
01:08 things that I'll be able to do is to try as far as possible with transport links and all the rest of
01:13 it to make things as joined up as possible so that we are a cathedral for the whole of East and West
01:21 Sussex together. And what would that look like, is that sort of
01:25 events that take place in different geographical areas, is that events with a sort of more open
01:30 approach to people from other parts of Sussex, so just how would that manifest? Or is it too early
01:35 to say, that's also fine? No it's a good question. I think there are a number of things, obviously
01:42 to make the cathedral here as welcoming a space for people to make the journey for particular
01:49 services and events or perhaps to stay over for a bit. Then I think there's also the possibility
01:56 for, as we do sometimes, we have some of the cathedral for example, the choir goes out to
02:02 parishes in East Sussex or lectures that are put on at the cathedral are also rerun in venues in
02:11 the East of the diocese. And I think also the other thing really is that since the pandemic
02:18 we're all now more used to connecting via electronic means and so I think, I'm not quite
02:26 sure how this will work, but I think that that probably does create a bit of an opportunity
02:32 for the cathedral to have to reach people across the diocese and across the two counties
02:39 rather more easily than has been possible via those sort of means. That makes total sense. And
02:44 is there anything in particular you'd like to, suppose the word is, emphasize or lead on or
02:49 prioritize, so during your tenure as dean, anything that you're particularly interested in
02:53 promoting I guess? Well I think the cathedrals are churches, so they're places of prayer,
03:06 they're spiritual places and so people coming for that reason and coming to find inspiration,
03:12 hopefully ultimately coming to find God, so that's part of it. I think cathedrals also have
03:18 an educational role and so fostering in the widest sense, you know, things like lectures,
03:24 study in its widest sense, but also concerts, exhibitions, all of those things which I think
03:34 do happen already, it's just a cathedral, but I think to try to have the widest range of people
03:43 coming in for activities that are sort of, which are related to the central purpose of being a
03:50 cathedral, so that's what I'd hope for. I'm not quite sure at the moment how all of that will
03:57 look, but I think that's what I want to encourage.