| Description | Oremus is the magazine of Westminster Cathedral, produced by volunteers. Oremus is the sixth in a series of titles dealing with the life and work of Westminster Cathedral from its earliest days at the start of the 20th century. Oremus first appeared in 1996 and over the following years recorded events such as the death of Cardinal Hume, the installation of his successor, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, and the celebration of the Millennium Jubilee in 2000 AD.
The first publication in the series of periodicals that preceded Oremus was the Westminster Cathedral Record in January 1896. Its purpose was to encourage subscriptions to the crucial building fund for the Cathedral. There were regular progress reports by the architect, J F Bentley, accompanied by detailed drawings, together with lists of benefactors and their generous donations such as the Duke of Norfolk who gave £10,000 (about £500,000 today). Others paid for specific items in the Cathedral - a marble column cost from £50 while £33 bought 10,000 bricks. From 1899 the Record was included as a supplement to The Tablet, the weekly Catholic periodical. Although intended as a quarterly, only eleven editions of the Record were published. The final edition in June 1902 included a tribute by Cardinal Vaughan to his architect, John Francis Bentley who had recently died. Vaughan himself died in June of the following year.
For several years there was no Cathedral magazine until the publication of the Cathedral Chronicle, a monthly, available from January 1907. The Chronicle included photographs and advertisements, messages from the Archbishop, news of changes at Clergy House, articles on liturgy and reports on the ongoing decoration of the Cathedral, which aimed to encourage donations in order to fund this mammoth task. When it started, the Cathedral interior consisted of vast areas of bare brick. By the time it ceased publication, the marble and mosaic seen today was almost all in place. The Chronicle was published for the next 60 years. It covered the consecration of the Cathedral in 1910 and a succession of four Cardinal Archbishops of Westminster. Although it continued to publish during the First World War of 1914-18, it was disrupted by the Second World War of 1939-45. The boys of the Choir School were evacuated and the Cathedral closed early each day for the ‘black-out’. Protective scaffolding surrounded the marble columns and baldacchino while bombs blew in windows and scarred the woodwork. Post war, production costs for the Chronicle soared and by the time of its final edition in December 1967, it required an annual subsidy from the Cathedral of £600.
It was replaced in January 1968 by the more modest Westminster Cathedral News Sheet, which lasted for only forty editions. In May 1971 it was replaced by the Westminster Cathedral Journal, but its life was even shorter than the News Sheet, the last one appearing in December 1973, its demise, as with the Chronicle, due to the need for a major subsidy, which the Cathedral could no longer afford. In 1974 the Westminster Cathedral Bulletin was launched, a free newsheet produced by members of the Parish Council. In September 1981 it went from being produced fortnightly to monthly, with special editions for major events like the Pope’s visit to Britain in 1982. It received a new layout in 1979 and again in 1985 and 1992. Gradually the Bulletin changed from a simple typed sheet to a twelve page monthly magazine on art paper, containing articles, interviews, photographs a cartoon (Charlie Chaplain – the priests of the Cathedral are known as Chaplains) and income-generating advertisements to help it to break even. Through the 1990s there was colour for the front cover, and colour photographs as well, particularly for special events such as the historic visit to the Cathedral of the Queen in 1995.
In 1996 a survey of Bulletin readers affirmed the popularity of the magazine but suggested more photographs, more colour and greater coverage of Cathedral and parish news, suggestions which were incorporated in subsequent issues. It was also felt that the name itself, suggesting lots of news, was inappropriate and should rather reflect the special character of the Cathedral. Eventually the new title agreed on was Oremus, The Magazine of Westminster Cathedral (Oremus being the Latin for 'Let us pray').
The penultimate editor of the Bulletin was John Browne, who went on to become Assistant Head at Ampleforth College. Recent editors of Oremus have included Fr Richard Andrew and Fr Tim Dean. Prior to the current Editor, Fr John Scott (who took over in late July 2016), the managzine was edited by Dylan Parry, who also had responsibility for the Cathedral website and social media sites. It was Dylan Parry who decided to make Oremus a free publication in December 2013. During 2010, the centenary year of the Consecration of Westminster Cathedral, the Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, agreed to be Patron of Oremus, the Magazine of Westminster Cathedral.
Further information about Oremus is available on the Cathedral website at http://www.westminstercathedral.org.uk/oremus_pre.php. Although the Oremus collection held by Westminster Diocesan Archives is incomplete, there is a comprehensive collection in Westminster Cathedral archives which covers Oremus and all its predecessors. There is a full archive of Oremus held in the Editor's Office, Vaughan House, as well as a good collection the titel's immediate predecessors. The Editor also has 4 complete bound volumes of Oremus received from the estate of the late Patrick Rogers, the Cathedral Historian, whose papers are also held in the Cathedral Archives. |