NEW DEAN WELCOMED AT "A TIME OF GREAT CHANGE"

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

The Very Reverend David Monteith has been installed as the new Dean of Leicester

New Dean welcomed at "a time of great change"

The Very Reverend David Monteith has been installed as the new Dean of Leicester.

The Very Rev Monteith officially began his new post after a service at Leicester Cathedral on Saturday.

The new Dean, taking over from Vivienne Faull, who last year moved to be Dean of York, has been at the cathedral four years having previously been the canon chancellor with responsibility for pastoral and educational life.

In his sermon to the congregation, the Very Rev Monteith said: "Cathedrals are called to embrace the interface between the spiritual and the secular.

"This Cathedral is invited to create the kind of space which frees up others to explore this spirituality in countless languages, metaphors, images, experiences and church traditions."

During the service the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Rev Tim Stevens welcomed the new Dean.

He said: "Few Deans have been installed at a time of such great change in their Cathedral. We have discerned in you the gifts and qualities this challenge require. May God bless you."

The service included music sung in Irish reflecting the Dean's native origins.

A piece written by Dr Chris Johns, director of music at the cathedral was premiered.

It uses a poem by Robert Herryck who is commemorated in the cathedral and whose family home was on the site of the Greyfriars Friary where Richard III was buried.