Former US Ambassador to the UK visits the Cathedral

Last Friday, Andrew our Dean, Canon Neil and members of the Development and Visitor Engagement team met former United States Ambassador to the UK, Robert H. Tuttle and his wife Maria, who thoroughly enjoyed their visit to the Cathedral.

Ambassador and Mrs Tuttle are now both Honorary Co-Chairs of the St Paul's Cathedral Trust in America - a US based charity who advocate for and support the work and mission of the Cathedral.

The Light of the World receives conservation funding

We are delighted to have received funding from Bank of America for an art conservation project for one of the most beloved artworks in our collection: William Holman Hunt's The Light of the World (1900-04), a work which resonates with people all over the world.

Here at St Paul's, the artist's third version of this painting is in our collection and care. The first version (painted in 1853) is at Keble College, Oxford and the second (painted shortly after the first) is in the collection of Manchester Art Gallery.

The St Paul's piece was painted around 50 years later, with the assistance of Edward Robert Hughes. After completion, the painting toured the globe before finding its permanent home at the Cathedral in 1908.

The extraordinary frame surrounding the painting was created by artist and aviator Hilda Herbert and her anonymous co-creator, one 'Miss Smith.'

The Light of the World is currently off display while conservation work takes place, but it will be back in the Cathedral for all to enjoy in due course. Find out more about this artwork by visiting our website.

Introducing Judith Fremont-Barnes, new School Head

In April we announced that Judith Fremont-Barnes had been appointed as the new Head of the Cathedral School. Currently Head of Milton Abbey School, Judith will succeed Simon Larter-Evans in September, when Simon moves to become Principal of Tring Park School for Performing Arts.

This week we're sharing this short film introducing Judith - enjoy!

Improving access for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

This week is Learning Disability Week, and the Schools and Family Learning team are always looking for ways to improve access to the Cathedral and our school sessions, for the children and young people we welcome.

They have recently updated Access to Learning bundles; a resource which aims to provide support to those visiting with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

Including a range of sensory items and object handling, the bundles both help to access the Cathedral space and are tied into the curriculum linked sessions we offer. For example, each bag contains ear defenders (in case sounds create discomfort), magnifiers for those with visual impairments, and they might include a scent box connected to the Great Fire of London, such as burnt wood or gunpowder!

Teachers are able to request Access to Learning bundles in advance, or they can just pick one up on the day. The supports get excellent feedback from teachers, and students are better able to engage with the Cathedral and learning during their guided session.

What's on next week

Tuesday 27th June, 11am: Service of Thanksgiving for Sir Christopher Wren (please note that we open for sightseeing at the later time of 1pm)
Thursday 29th June, 5pm: Sung Eucharist for the Feast of Peter the Apostle

Saturday 1st July, 3pm: Ordination of Deacons and Sung Eucharist (last entry for sightseeing will be at the earlier time of 11.30am)

Job opportunities

Senior Chaperone to the Choristers
Hours: 11 hours average per week, during Chorister term time
Salary: £7,775 per annum (£26,500 FTE)

Closing date for applications: 28th June 2023

Find out more.

Chaperone to the Choristers

Hours: 8 hours average per week, during Chorister term-time

Salary: £5,120 per annum (£24,000 FTE)

Closing date for applications: 28th June 2023

Find out more.

Senior Plumber

Hours: Full-time, 39 hours per week, Monday to Friday

Salary: £44,500 per annum plus benefits

Closing date for applications: 30th June 2023

Find out more.

All Staff meeting, 28th June

Here's a reminder that our next All Staff meeting will take place on Wednesday 28th June, between 9 and 10am in the OBE Chapel. There will be refreshments in the Crypt from 8.45am, with a summer menu of cold drinks, juices, pastries and fruit.

In the meeting, we'll learn about the positive steps we’re making with the recovery relating to visitor numbers and finances, receive updates on safety (including work being undertaken on fire prevention and a follow up from last week’s security exercise), celebrate staff achieving length of service awards and share some behind the scenes stories form the recent Netflix filming.

An IT update about implementing MS SharePoint Services

The next development for our Microsoft 365 project is to implement SharePoint Services on our work shared drives. Testing and set-up is now complete and the rollout will commence next week - standby for more from Garry about that!

How does this effect you?

The migration will happen in the background, and there will be minimal to no disruption while it takes place. Once complete, two things will occur simultaneously:

Your existing mapped drives (on the left hand side of File Explorer) will disappear. This is expected and necessary as the files you work on will no longer be at those locations.
You will see that new folders will appear at the left hand side of your File Explorer under the name ‘St Paul’s Cathedral’. They will not have drive letters assigned to them, but will have the same, or very similar names to your current mapped drives.

Example: Before

Example: After

Once the migration has taken place, there will be a change in how you access folders and files remotely. Currently, if you are working remotely (away from the Cathedral/Chapter House and not connected to the Cathedral network or wireless) you need to login to a VPN to access your allocated Shared Drives.

After the migration, this will no longer be necessary, as the files will be in the Microsoft Cloud, and accessed securely via your work PC or laptop.

You will also then be able to share files and folders between departments, colleagues, and even externally to stakeholders, partners or third party contractors, for example. The process is very similar to how you can already do this using your OneDrive personal files and folders. All of this will lead to solutions for staff to more easily and securely collaborate between each other and external organisations.

And finally...

Did you know that the full moon in June is known as the Strawberry Moon? Named for the berries which ripen at this time of year! A couple of weeks ago, photographer Ed Hasler captured the moon over the City skyline beautifully.

If you have anything to include in next week's news, please remember to email internalcomms@stpaulscathedral.org.uk by the end of Wednesday at the latest.

With very best wishes,
Laura