At the end of every Mass, we are given the missionary imperative to go out and do something. 2014 was our centenary year; and our bishop invited every church and community in the diocese to develop some kind of mission event – as simple as a prayer walk round the community or as ambitious as a full-scale evangelical mission. The bottom line was that the local Christian community had to go out from its comfort zone and encounter others. There would be no formal reporting back but an invitation to share stories after the event.

I arrived at Chelmsford Cathedral at the beginning of 2014. It emerged that our “mission event” was going to be a film night. Hardly a mission event – just a film night. But at some level, surely, the cathedral needed to be exemplary, risk-taking even.

On Thursday mornings the ministry team meet to spend an hour in Lectio Divina and see what emerges from it. It was from just such a meeting that it became clear that the cathedral’s mission event was indeed going to be more challenging than this one event: the team felt very clearly that God through the Scriptures was calling us to cancel the cathedral’s regular worship for a whole Sunday and encourage everyone to go elsewhere. The team felt a real sense of shock – yes, this was the deal. But how on earth could it be done? How on earth would people respond?