Civic Mass in the Catholic Cathedral

A first for me on Sunday

My first catholic mass, my first visit to the catholic cathedral, my first civic mass and all on the occasion of the city's 800th birthday.

There were very few councillors there really, plenty of mayors from across Merseyside in their spendid chains and gown, but not many from the backbenches.

I sat next to Andrew who was elected to the council on the same day as me, albeit for the other side. We had a chat about how you decide what to go to, councillors get so many invites to so many things, and what to put to one side. Andrew said he was going to go to everything so that he would know for next year what to concentrate on. A pretty good philosophy really. Although like me he had arrived at things to find he was more or less on his own, hopefully neither of us have been conspicuous by our absence anywhere that really matters.

The Catholic ArchBishop made a good fist out of convincing us that there is only one God and so all the churches should work harder at reconciliation and peace. That part was quite straightforward.

He also talked about combatting the political divides and our Lord Mayor (or should I call Joan "My Lord Mayor" which is how Councillor Radford always refers to her) read a reading from St James about turning the other cheek and making the biggest effort to get on with and work with those who are the hardest to like and the furthest away from yourself.

More easily said than done, I guess I just have to try harder, a lot harder