Candlelight will fill Ripon Cathedral at their upcoming Candlemas service on Saturday February 1, at 7.30pm.
The Cathedral’s service always looks spectacular, with some 7000 candles lighting up the space in 2019.
A team of staff and volunteers will spend a week placing candles across the cathedral’s many alcoves, some of which are 70 feet off the ground.
At ground level, local school children will help lay out intricate designs on the cathedral floor.
It takes a team of six people three hours to light all the candles.
The Dean of York, the Rt Revd Dr Jonathan Frost, will be preaching.
The service celebrates the presentation by Mary and Joseph of the baby Jesus in the Temple, where the old man Simeon waited for ‘the light to lighten the Gentiles.’
When Simeon saw Jesus, he spoke the words that would become known as the Nunc Dimittis: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, thy word has been fulfilled.”
It is said or sung in the cathedral every evening in evening prayer and evensong.
The Dean of Ripon, the Very Revd John Dobson, said: “This year we happen to be keeping this great feast on the first day following our departure from the European Union.
“At a time when we are conscious of our nation reassessing its relationships with other countries, the words of Simeon remind us that Jesus comes as a light to enlighten the whole world and that his purpose is to establish God’s kingdom in all the world - so we pray that as a nation we might continue to be a blessing and a force for good within the global community.”