This November the Cathedral will be home to the Spire of Peace to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War and inspire us to consider how to take positive action for peace.
The Spire of Peace has been designed by land artists Mark and Rebecca Ford (pictured below) to stand 9 metres high in the Cathedral's North Transept. Visitors will be able to enter and explore as well as contribute to the Spire with their own personal pledge for peace.
The outside will be covered in a spiralling mass of over 1000 paper butterflies hand-folded by local young people and community groups. Butterflies are symbols of the fragility of life, but also of transformation, renewal and hope.
The Spire of Peace will also be the focus for events for young people. The West Sussex Young Carers group will be willow weaving with Mark and Rebecca Ford, as well as folding large scale butterflies to add to the Spire.
On the 9th November children from six primary schools will be gathering for an interactive Remembrance and Peace-making service at the Cathedral to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War and to inspire them to take positive action to work for peace.
The event is one of a series of high profile, simultaneous INSPIRE peace-making events which are being held in Cathedrals throughout the United Kingdom, in collaboration with the Oasis Charitable Trust, Coventry Cathedral and the Quakers in Britain. Following the service, pupils will engage in further peace-making activities including adding their own peace pledges to the Spire of Peace.
For adults, Two Circles Design is running a Willow Sphere Making workshop on 20th November - find out more and book your place here.
Mark and Rebecca Ford will be weaving the Spire of Peace in the North Transept of the Cathedral from the 1st - 4th November 2018.
Download twenty ideas to build peace in your community here.