Join Friends of St Mary’s Cathedral for a talk by Sir James MacMillan, one of the world’s most successful living composers, and Scotland’s best known Catholic musician.

Sir James MacMillan has managed to bring his deep-rooted Catholic faith, and the overt Catholicism in his music, into the secular realm in a uniquely successful way. As a globally acclaimed composer, and as the pre-eminent Scottish composer of his generation, his concert music is broadcast and performed throughout the world. As a conductor, he travels the globe working with some of classical music’s top ensembles. In 2014 he founded The Cumnock Tryst arts festival in his childhood town, and he was awarded a knighthood for services to music in 2015. In 2021 he was named Patron of Music of our own St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh.

In his talk, Sir James will explore how chant, as the music of Faith, has influenced the history of music. It’s a rare opportunity to hear insights from one of the world’s most acclaimed classical music composers, and one of the Church’s great musicians.

Join Fr Patrick to meditate on the Passion of Christ as written in the Gospel of St John. This Zoom event takes place at 6:00pm on Palm Sunday (24 March). 

This is a good way to start Holy Week in a spirit of reflection and to discover some insights into Christ’s Passion. 

Alternatively, if you would like to come along and watch the presentation live in the Parish Rooms at St. Andrew’s, Ravelston, please email cathedralhouse@stmarycathedral.co.uk by Friday, 22 March.

The Old Testament is full of stories of remarkable women, join Friends of the Cathedral on Wednesday, 21st February, 7.30pm in Coffee Saints to hear Prof Stephany Biello talk about their courage.

Please contact ppccathedral@stmaryscathedral.co.uk to let Friends know you would like to come. You can find out more about and join Friends of St Mary's Cathedral at https://www.stmaryscathedral.co.uk/friends.

7pm Getting to Know the New Testament: How Reliable are the New Testament Documents?

8pm Mark’s Key to Knowing Jesus - Faith   

In order to help all of us to come to know Jesus better through the Gospel, we are delighted that Prof. James Edwards will come from the USA to present a short course on the Gospel of Mark in October. 

The “mini course” is taking place each evening of the week 23-27th October in the Cathedral from 7-9pm. 

These events are open to all and are a wonderful opportunity to get to know the Scriptures better, and hopefully to get to know Jesus better. Why not book onto an evening's course, or all five!

7pm  Getting to Know the New Testament: Why the Twenty-Seven Books of the New Testament Canon? 

8pm  Mark’s Description of Following Jesus - Discipleship 

In order to help all of us to come to know Jesus better through the Gospel, we are delighted that Prof. James Edwards will come from the USA to present a short course on the Gospel of Mark in October. 

The “mini course” is taking place each evening of the week 23-27th October in the Cathedral from 7-9pm. 

These events are open to all and are a wonderful opportunity to get to know the Scriptures better, and hopefully to get to know Jesus better. Why not book onto an evening's course, or all five!

7pm Getting to Know the New Testament: The One Gospel and the Four Gospels

8pm Mark’s Defining Characteristic of Jesus - Authority

In order to help all of us to come to know Jesus better through the Gospel, we are delighted that Prof. James Edwards will come from the USA to present a short course on the Gospel of Mark in October. 

The “mini course” is taking place each evening of the week 23-27th October in the Cathedral from 7-9pm. 

These events are open to all and are a wonderful opportunity to get to know the Scriptures better, and hopefully to get to know Jesus better. Why not book onto an evening's course, or all five!

7pm  Getting to Know the New Testament: From Jewish Jesus to Gentile Church    

8pm  Mark’s Dominant Title for Jesus - Son of God 

In order to help all of us to come to know Jesus better through the Gospel, we are delighted that Prof. James Edwards will come from the USA to present a short course on the Gospel of Mark in October. 

The “mini course” is taking place each evening of the week 23-27th October  in the Cathedral from 7-9pm. 

These events are open to all and are a wonderful opportunity to get to know the Scriptures better, and hopefully to get to know Jesus better. Why not book onto an evening's course, or all five!

7pm Getting to Know the New Testament: From Oral Proclamation to Written Texts: Kerygma, Epistles, Gospels  

8pm Mark’s Special Characteristics Style, Sandwich Technique, Irony  

In order to help all of us to come to know Jesus better through the Gospel, we are delighted that Prof. James Edwards will come from the USA to present a short course on the Gospel of Mark in October. 

The “mini course” is taking place each evening of the week 23-27th October in the Cathedral from 7-9pm. 

These events are open to all and are a wonderful opportunity to get to know the Scriptures better, and hopefully to get to know Jesus better. Why not book onto an evening's course, or all five!

James R. Edwards

James Edwards is a native of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he enjoyed mountaineering and skiing, and was active in Young Life. He is a graduate of Whitworth University (1967), Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div, 1970), University of Zürich (1971), and Fuller Theological Seminary (Ph.D. 1978). He chaired the department of Religion and Philosophy at Jamestown College (1978-97), and joined the faculty at Whitworth in 1997, where he taught as Bruner-Welch Professor of Theology until 2015. He is currently Bruner-Welch Professor Emeritus of Theology. His sabbatical studies included Tübingen, Germany (1988), Tyndale House, Cambridge, England (2000), the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton (2007), and the Geheim Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin-Dahlem, Germany (2016).

Edwards served as Minister of Students at First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs (1971-78). He has been a short-term translation consultant for Wycliffe Bible Translators in Colom¬bia, he was a translator with Berlin Fellowship for church visitations to former East Germany, and he has led study tours to Germany, Greece, Turkey, and Israel. He continues to speak in church, university, and conference settings. He has published numerous articles in scholarly and popular journals, and he has authored three New Testament commentaries for Community Bible Study. His published books include Romans (Baker Books, 1992), The Divine Intruder, NavPress, 2000; Wipf & Stock, 2017), The Gospel According to Mark (Pillar Commentary Series, Eerdmans, 2002), Is Jesus the Only Savior? (Eerdmans, 2005 [received Christianity Today’s book of the year award in 2006 for apologetics and evangelism]); and The Hebrew Gospel and the Development of the Synoptic Tradition (Eerdmans, 2009); The Gospel According to Luke (Pillar Series, Eerdmans, 2015); Between the Swastika and the Sickle. The Life, Disppearance, and Execution of Ernst Lohmeyer (Eerdmans, 2019); From Christ to Christianity. How the Jesus Movement Became the Church in Less than a Century (Baker, 2021). He is currently writing a commentary on the Book of Genesis (to be published by Eerdmans).

Jim’s wife Janie is an artist and is active in children’s and women’s ministries. They have two grown children and five grandchildren. In 2003 Jim and his son Mark climbed the Mittellegi Ridge of the Eiger in Switzerland

We are delighted to celebrate the choral music of Paul Mealor, Welsh musician of international acclaim and composer for the Royal Wedding and the Coronation of King Charles IlI.

Join Paul Mealor, one of the world's most performed living composers, and the Schola Cantorum of St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, for a unique performance of Mealor's choral music. During the concert Paul will talk to director of music Michael Ferguson about the sources of inspiration for his music, and the process of composing his acclaimed works.

Tickets are £16 and available from the Fringe Box Office, Eventbrite, and on the door. Friends of the Cathedral are invited to a post-concert drinks reception with Paul Mealor and the Schola Cantorum.

This event is part of the Sacred Arts Festival 2023. Proceeds from the concert are in support of the Festival of the Sacred Arts and the musical life of St Mary's Catholic Cathedral.

Henry James Creechan

The presentation looks at the history of the shroud and its journey across Europe from the 14th Century onwards, as well as earlier sightings that are rarely heard of. This gives us the opportunity to consider how early observers of the shroud would have interpreted the cloth prior to the onset of scientific analysis. Henry will then discuss the scrutiny of the shroud under scientific methods and photography.

Although very extensive analysis exists, especially the infamous ‘carbon test’ of 1988, Henry simplifies the controversy using newly published data from the test. The presentation concludes by considering Henry James Creechanthe probability of whether or not the shroud is that of Jesus Christ.