2025 has been a remarkable year for Chichester. Together, we’ve celebrated 950 years since the formation of the Diocese of Chichester and Chichester Cathedral - a milestone that brought our community together in ways both joyful and profound.
From concerts and exhibitions to services and gatherings, the Chichester950 programme has shone a light on the rich religious, cultural, and civic life that has shaped our region for nearly a millennium. It’s been a year of stories, music, art, and shared moments that remind us why this place matters.
To capture some of that spirit, we’ve reached out to friends across our community - people who’ve been part of the festivities - to share their reflections on what Chichester950 has meant to them. In the second of three reflections, the Bishop of Chichester, the Right Reverend Dr Martin Warner, reflects on this special moment for the Diocese of Chichester, which spans across both East and West Sussex.
And before we leave you read Helen's reflection - we’d love to hear from you too. Tell us what stood out for you and help shape the Cathedral’s future programme and how we can improve your experience when visiting the Cathedral, or joining one of our events.
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The 950 celebrations have been amazing. Many of the organised events have reached out to people who rarely cross the cathedral’s threshold but who live locally and love this iconic building.
Among the highlights I want to record my own enjoyment of TrinityFest on the Green, combining sacred worship within the cathedral with hospitality and entertainment outside for people of all ages, of all faiths and none.
Music has also been a major element of the celebration. The incredible fundraising success for an endowment to secure the future of the cathedral choir indicates widespread appreciation of Chichester’s maintenance of excellence in the arts. The Bernstein and Rutter concerts demonstrated this, as did the musical element of the astonishing Chichester Light Experience.
Viewed from the northeast corner of Priory Park, Chichester Cathedral overlooks the city as a watchful, loving presence and source of inspiration.
The Bishop of Chichester, the Right Reverend Dr Martin Warner
The Christian faith it proclaims has been instrumental in generating some of our best achievements: in a university, schools, St Richard’s Hospital, the alms houses at St Mary’s, Pallant House Gallery, and the Festival Theatre.
Just ahead of the 950 anniversary, Chichester hosted an international conference of the British Archaeological Association. Historians representing many different disciplines gave us new insights into the trend-setting architectural styles that are evident in the cathedral and the Bishop’s Palace, spanning the whole of our history.
Much of this history of innovation drew from the Church’s links with the continent, prior to the Brexit enthusiasm of Henry VIII that separated us from important cultural influences. Indeed, St Richard of Chichester is himself an example of someone who brought to Sussex the sophistication and renewing vision of a continental movement: the Dominican Order.
In this anniversary year I have particularly valued opportunities to subvert those restrictions that are an unhappy expression of our more recent Brexit.
We welcomed into the life of the cathedral the Roman Catholic Bishop of Chartres, Mgr Philippe Christory, thereby strengthening a French civic link that had lost its ecclesiastical foundation. I was also delighted to welcome the German Archbishop of Bamburg, Dr Herwig Gössl, whose presence reminds us of the power of Christianity to bring together in peace those who were once deadly enemies.
However, the most memorable conference and visit in the past year was part of a wider celebration within the whole Christian Church. This marked the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, which started a process of outlining what Christians do and do not believe, and is still part of Christian worship today.
We were immensely privileged to welcome to Chichester His All-Holiness, Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. He is the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians across the world: the Patriarch of the East, as the Pope is Patriarch of the West.
Hierarchs, bishops and archbishops from a range of international locations who share the work and ministry of Patriarch Bartholomew, were present in our cathedral worship as a potent reminder that in our 950-year-old building we witness to a mission that comes to us direct from Jesus Christ himself. They were joined by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham and by the Archbishop of York who presided and preached at the Sunday morning Sung Eucharist.
This gathering was a significant expression of an inheritance that is greater than the span of our own history. It invited us to locate Chichester in a network of universal relationships that join our own time and place with every time and place.
This perspective invites us to enlarge our understanding of human life and dignity, our stewardship of creation, and our purpose and destiny.
At a time when political systems seem to offer too little on which to build the peace, justice and stability we long for, the Christian faith at the heart of our 950 celebrations offers an enduring inheritance that demands attention to the unique and beautiful potential of the human person as made in the image of God.
My hope and prayer is that these celebrations will continue to invite all people of goodwill to explore this tradition of faith, and to find within it a sure and trustworthy source of hope for the future.