Spiritual Capital

[prev] …school with two or three academies, so their music departments and the children have the chance to do something on a bigger scale, that they would not otherwise have the opportunity to do. But the venue has to be fit for it.

The organ is currently too sharp to tune instruments up to it, but not sharp enough for the organist to transpose down…

One of the things that people might wonder about in the campaign is why we’re bothering to re-pitch the great pipe organ here. But when it was built in the 19th century there wasn’t really one standard pitch, and it was built at what’s called Philharmonic pitch, which is nearly a semitone sharp, but not quite… So it’s too sharp to tune instruments up to it, but not sharp enough for the organist to transpose down. So if an orchestra – school or professional – comes to do a carol service or a concert, they can’t use that great thundering organ. So we have permission from the Cathedral Fabric Commission to re-pitch that. It’s not just a tuning exercise – they have to take out every one of the 5,000 pipes, lengthen it slightly, then voice it again so it sounds right, and that’s a £400,000 job. We’re half way through raising the money to do that, so on that score, the campaign is going extremely well. We launched in 2011 with a target of raising £10million, and although the amount has gone up a bit since then with some of the extra work we need to do, we’re over half way to that. We’re at £6million now. So that’s very encouraging, in the way individuals, grant-making trusts, funding bodies and not least businesses have responded to support it all.

What’s the next big landmark for the Campaign?
There is this thing at the back of our minds that it would be nice to have 900 businesses engaged by Peterborough 900, but that’s a very ambitious target! By ‘engaged’ though, that doesn’t necessarily mean every one of those contributing £15,000 – there are different levels of it. But it’s an interesting idea! It’s really a continual process of engagement, meeting new businesses, inviting them to come and see what the place has got, and inviting them to make use of it – for corporate functions, bringing clients round as part of their visit to the city, having receptions in the gardens. It’s an ideal venue for corporate hospitality, amongst other things.

And, of course, it introduces the Cathedral and the city to the people they bring round…
Yes, and hopefully they, too, will come back and perhaps invest in the city. In fact that happened today. Two of the people who I spoke to at Normanton said they would stop by the Cathedral today, so I gave them a whistle-stop tour. They’d never been in before, even though they don’t live far away. One is married to a businessman in Peterborough, in fact. So it’s partly about being aware what’s on your own doorstep. But also, if you get off the escalator at Kings Cross, you see a poster for Durham Cathedral, but there’s nothing to advertise Peterborough.

It’s been through fire and tempest, but it’s still here! In itself it’s kind of a parable of resurrection

So we need to address that, too – not just us as a Cathedral, but the city as a whole. The marketing of the city in the past has been rather regional and parochial, and I think all together we can be much more confident and ambitious in the way we tell the story. On Tuesday night, the Cathedral choir was invited to sing in St Paul’s Cathedral with the St Paul’s choir. There were probably 2,500 present, and that helps to put Peterbrough on the map a bit. It’s been on the map quite a while now – and in continuous business for even longer than the 900 years of the present building, despite Vikings, revolting peasants and Oliver Cromwell… It’s been through fire and tempest, but it’s still here! In itself it’s kind of a parable of resurrection, of the continuing renewal of life. It never stands still; it’s not a fossilised museum, but a living tradition, and not so much reinventing itself as constantly moving on in its journey, always in a process of evolution. It has a history to tell, but it’s a living history, and we need to know our past, because it’s part of what makes us what we are in our present – it’s our identity.

Peterborough 900 Campaign Corporate Opportunities
The Peterborough 900 campaign is offering companies the opportunity to become part of the project by signing up as members, and in doing so, corporate partners gain certain benefits. These benefits relate to the size of the donation, and range from the relatively simple – invitations to networking events, and various forms of public acknowledgment of the gift – to the more elaborate – including recognition on a wall of donors and free use of the Cathedral for private corporate events.

Perhaps most interesting to new or up-and-coming companies is the possibility of a bespoke PR campaign to local and regional media regarding your gift, run by the Cathedral. Payment of the donation can also be spread over a period of time up to 2018, making it a viable option for smaller companies.

So far, the Campaign has attracted a formidable array of corporate supporters, including Diligenta, Hegarty Solicitors, BGL, Travelex, Santander, Barclays and many more. Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce have recently selected Peterborough Cathedral and its Peterborough 900 Campaign to be their charity of the year.

To find out more or to get involved, please contact the Campaign Office or
visit the website

T: 01733 355315
[email protected]
www.peterborough900.org.uk