Lent Services

12th February 2021 by llandaff

All of our Lent services will appear here alongside Orders of Service when available. Our Lent services are listed below:

Sundays:
9.00am All-age Eucharist
11.15am Holy Eucharist (this service is also broadcast live on this page)
12.00pm Bishop June’s Weekly Homily – available to watch at any time after our 11.15am service
4.30pm Lent Service with hymns (This service is broadcast each week and is not a public service)

Wednesdays:
9.00am – Canon Jan’s Thought for the Week

Holy Week services will be confirmed in due course.
To stay up to date with our services and news, sign up to receive our newsletter here.

Wednesday 24th February

• Thought for the Week is based on one of the day’s lectionary readings. For the Bible online, click the following link – http://bible.oremus.org/ – then choose your version (we use NRSV in church). Copy and paste the reference into the search box (Jeremiah 5. 20-end) and the passage will be displayed.

This week is the start of Fairtrade Fortnight. For more information, click here

Click here to view the text version

Sunday 21st February – The First Sunday of Lent

• The latest Government guidelines allow us to continue holding services. You are welcome to join us for our 9am All-age Eucharist and 11.15am Eucharist tomorrow. You can access the Order of Service and Weekly Notes by scanning a QR code in the Cathedral. Alternatively you can download them below. You can also watch the 11.15am service live as it happens below.

9.00am Service Sheet

11.15am Service Sheet

Weekly Notes

• Following our 11.15am service each week in Lent you can see Bishop June’s weekly Lent homily below.

• Each Sunday in Lent we will broadcast an Evening Prayer service with hymns which will be available to watch below from 4.30pm.

Click here to view the Order of Service

Wednesday 17th February – Ash Wednesday

• Join us for our Ash Wednesday Choral Eucharist with Imposition of Ashes which you can watch here from 7.30pm. The service is led by Canon Jan van der Lely, Canon Chancellor, and includes music by William Byrd and Thomas Tallis. You can also join in with three hymns – ‘Lord Jesus, think on me’, ‘Lead us heavenly Father, lead us’, and ‘Forty days and forty nights’.

Click here to view the Order of Service

• Instead of a Thought for the Week, today we are showing Bishop June’s Ash Wednesday message which you can watch below. Canon Jan’s Thought for the Week will return next Wednesday.

Take a look at our Peregrine Falcons!

4th February 2021 by llandaff

We are very excited to have become home to two Peregrine Falcons! The birds have attracted a lot of interest and very soon we will be installing equipment enabling us to livestream from the tower, giving us all a closer look into the lives of these fascinating birds of prey. Keep an eye on our social media pages as we prepare to launch the new webcam.

Below, Ed Drewitt, a naturalist who is working on the project, provides some information about peregrine falcons and some advice on finding them at the Cathedral!

Peregrine Falcons on Llandaff Cathedral

Llandaff Cathedral is home to one of the fastest birds in the world, the peregrine falcon. They have been here throughout 2020 and we hope that they may nest here in 2021. A nest tray has been installed in the Cathedral tower, to encourage the peregrines to nest, and to ensure that any eggs that they lay don’t roll away into the gutter.

What does a peregrine look like?

Peregrines belong to the falcon family. They are crow-size with long, pointed wings, and a sharp, hooked beak. Their wings, back, tail, and the top of their head are mainly blue-grey in colour. They have white-cream underparts with spots and fine barring. Below each eye they have a thick, dark stripe. The legs and base of the beak (known as the cere) are bright yellow. The female (or falcon) is much bigger than the male (tiercel). Young peregrines are browner on the back and head, with a streaked chest, pale yellow legs, and a blue-brown cere.

Where can you see them on the cathedral?

The peregrines are often resting on the pinnacles and gargoyles of the cathedral’s towers – particularly on the east facing pinnacles at the base of the cathedral spire. If still, they can be difficult to see. Other times they may be flying around, often circling overhead and calling. They can be quite noisy, giving out screeches and other calls.

During February and March, the breeding pair may be very visible and noisy. They can be seen circling overhead, and heard calling as part of their courtship display. Later in the year, when the young have left the nest, the whole family may be seen flying low overhead.

Eggs

Peregrines lay between one and five eggs in mid March to early April. Their nest is a small scrape on a rocky ledge or on gravel in a nest tray provided for them. The eggs are incubated mainly by the female, and during this time the male does most of the hunting.

Hatching

In late April to early May, the eggs hatch. The chicks are fed by both parents, and they stay in the nest for six weeks. Whilst they are in the nest, they make a lot of noise, and frequently flap their wings. This helps them to strengthen their wing muscles as they get ready to fly.

Leaving the nest

The chicks leave the nest after six weeks, around mid-June. They may stay in the area throughout late summer and autumn, learning how to hunt and fend for themselves. After this, they will leave and find their own nest site a year or two later. Occasionally a young bird may stay and help their parents to look after the following year’s chicks.

What do peregrines eat?

Peregrines mainly eat other birds, hunting by chasing or diving at great speeds, with their wings half folded. They can dive at speeds over 200 miles per hour, making them one of the fastest birds in the world! Sometimes peregrines hunt at night over the city, using the street lamps to help them see their prey. Once they have caught their prey, they often take it to a favoured perch on the cathedral where it is plucked and eaten. Peregrines also store food in favourite crevices on the roof known as a cache – a natural fridge! We can study the diet of the peregrines by collecting the feathers of their prey, which drift down from their plucking-posts. From these studies we know that the peregrines at Llandaff Cathedral feed on a variety of birds including feral pigeons, goldfinches, jackdaws, blackbirds – and they sometimes even catch bats.

Sometimes peregrines hunt at night over the city, using the street lamps to help them see their prey.

This week’s services

1st January 2021 by llandaff

The Cathedral is open for visitors!

Our opening times are:
Monday to Friday – 2pm to 4pm
Saturday – 1pm to 4pm
Sunday – 2pm to 4pm

Sunday services in the Cathedral take place at 9.00am and 11.15am.
Social distancing measures are in place and more information about attending services in the Cathedral can be found HERE

We have a special dedicated page for all our Lent services which begins on 17th February with our Ash Wednesday service.
Please CLICK HERE to watch all our services and access Orders of Service.

Sunday 14th February – The Sunday before Lent

9.00am Service Sheet

11.15am Service Sheet

Weekly Notes

Wednesday 10th February

• This evening Stephen Moore, Director of Music, presents a short Organ Recital which you can see from 7.00pm. The recital includes music by Edward Elgar, Paul Spicer and Jean Langlais.

Click here to view the programme.

• Thought for the Week is based on one of the day’s lectionary readings. For the Bible online, click the following link – http://bible.oremus.org/ – then choose your version (we use NRSV in church). Copy and paste the reference into the search box (Ezekiel 34. 11-16) and the passage will be displayed.

Click here to view the text version