The first female Dean of Lichfield was installed at the weekend with a promise to care for the least and the lost and help build a better world to rediscover mystery, hope, wonder, enchantment and faith.
New Dean of Lichfield Installed
For the Rt Revd Jan McFarlane, it was a bit of a homecoming. She was first ordained in Lichfield Cathedral thirty years ago, and is returning to the county of her birth.
The service was attended by the three local Bishops of Lichfield Stafford and Shrewsbury and the three local Lord Lieutenants and was filled with music from drum rolls to the rolls of thunder outside the cathedral..
In her sermon, she said:
“We are in a world which is materially prosperous, with life expectancy at an all-time high, but with statistics telling us that we are more unhappy and dissatisfied than we have ever been – and that’s especially true of our young people.
“In a world that has tried to airbrush Christianity and God out of the picture, which has managed to convince so many that the big story that has shaped our lives for 2,000 years is no longer of relevance, yet the faith that has led to the creation of hospitals and hospices and insisted on an education for all not just the privileged, tells us that we are bigger than just the survival of the fittest as in the animal kingdom and that we are to care for the least and the lost and that we are to forgive one another when we mess up.
“To love one another, not in a romantic hearts and roses sort of way but with God’s love. A love which is often challenging and difficult which has the power to transform lives.”
The Dean also highlighted the contributions of the church in shaping “the imagination of some of the greatest artists, poets, philosophers and composers”.
She continued:
“Over the centuries it has inspired some of the most magnificent buildings ever produced, given us our legal system, healthcare, education, the foundation of the abolition of slavery and the modern welfare state through an understanding that every single person’s life matters because they are made in the image of God.
“In the same way that a goldfish has no awareness that it is swimming in a bowl, we have forgotten that we swim in the sea of the Christian faith and that its basic tenets – ‘love God and love your neighbour as you love yourself’ – contain the keys of a meaningful existence and life in all its fullness, in ways that a self-obsessed, increasingly inward-looking, mentally and emotionally fragile selfie world can never do.
“Those who study such things say that the tide is turning. Here, in this cathedral as in the churches of the dioceses, we need to ready ourselves to look outwards not inwards, to reach out to those who are deeply restless and gnawingly hungry without quite knowing why.
“To help build a better world where we can rediscover mystery, hope wonder enchantment and faith.”
The Rt Revd Jan McFarlane has served as interim dean since the retirement of the Very Revd Adrian Dorber in March, 2023
