'If These Walls Could Talk' described some of the significant people and event in the Cathedral's history
Bible Exhibition
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible, one of the best known English language Bibles in the world. To celebrate this important anniversary, Heritage Perth Heritage Days 2011 is mounting an exhibition of family Bibles.
The exhibition includes 17th century editions of the King James Bible, family Bibles of all shapes and sizes, some of them containing fascinating glimpses of family history in the form of records of births, marriages and deaths and even the hand-written guest and present list from a Victorian wedding. There will also be Bibles in other languages, including an early edition of the first translation into Maori, and a small pocket Bible that went ashore in the first wave of the D-Day landings in the Second World War.
The exhibition runs from 12th – 20th November, 9am – 5pm Monday –Saturday and on Sundays Sunday’s from noon to 4pm.
Heritage Festival Service
St George’s Cathedral was consecrated in mid-November 1888 and sits at the very heart of Perth’s heritage precinct. The wonders of its architecture are best appreciated with the ear as well as with the eye, as the Cathedral (a busy concert-venue for the city as well as a thriving church) is designed to show off the voices of singers and organ alike.
To celebrate the 123rd anniversary of the consecration of the Cathedral, there will be a special Heritage Festival Service taking place at 10 am on Sunday 13th November. The nationally-acclaimed Cathedral Choir will lead the singing at what promises to be an inspiring service.
Heritage Food Festival
Following the Festival Service, emerge unto the newly re-landscaped Parvis (the terraced grassy area outside the Cathedral) to immerse yourself in the sights, smells, and tastes of Perth’s culinary heritage.
Since the arrival of Scots settlers in 1829, then English convicts, Chinese market-gardeners, Greeks and Italians, German wine-makers, Indians, Swedes, South Africans, Vietnamese, Maori, Sudanese, and many more, our indigenous food has been supplemented by the produce and flavours that each wave of migrants has brought to Perth. Explore them all in one beautiful grassed venue as each stall shows off the gastronomy of its nation of origin. Food for all the family, as there is children’s entertainment as well as sumptuous quality fresh meals.
As part of the Bible Exhibition, the Cathedral has arranged the following additional events:
Ecumenical Festival Service
The Perth Heads of Churches have created a celebration of 400 years of the King James Bible, hosted by St George’s Cathedral at 7 pm on Wednesday, 16th November. Readers at the service will include radio-presenter Tom Bull, and Perth-based actors Rosemary Barr and Caitlin Beresford-Ord. The preacher is Glenn Townend of the Seventh-day Adventists Conference, who is a direct descendent of William Tyndale. The Perth Fortress Salvation Army band provides the music, along with excerpts from Handel’s Messiah and newly composed pipe-tune accompanies the entrance of a seventeenth century copy of King James Bible.
Film: The Book that Changed the World
A new docu-drama from the UK on the history and politics around the creation of the King James Bible will be screened in St George’s Cathedral at 7pm Thursday 17 November. Marty Foord, Biblical scholar and historian, will introduce the film and takes questions from the floor. Wine and canapés