The Very Reverend Michael Sadgrove, pictured, made national headlines by calling on Sunderland boss Paolo Di Canio to renounce fascism. Here, he reflects on ten years as Dean of Durham

TEN years ago on St Cuthbert’s Day, I came to Durham as Dean, arriving on the footplate of a GNER train.

That March was mild and springlike.

My wife and I sat every day outside the Deanery, this beautiful and historic home where my predecessors have lived for centuries, thinking that nowhere could be as lovely as this.

At the service, a Northumbrian piper played, a symbol of coming back to our beloved North-East, where I had been a parish priest in the 1980s.

But there was a shadow across the day. On March 20, 2003, the first missiles were launched against Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad.

I followed developments by the hour, rewriting drafts of my evening’s sermon. I believed it was important not simply to “set out my stall”, as new deans do at their welcome services, but to say something that linked Durham, Cuthbert and our broken world to God and his care for humanity.

A cathedral is a prominent public building, a symbolic place of the spirit onto which peoples’ dreams and doubts, helplessness and hope tend to be projected. This is one of the services a cathedral can perform for those who have no allegiance to organised religion, which means most of our visitors.

In my ten years here, I have wanted to emphasise the cathedral’s outward- looking character and its strong connection with the communities that look to it, and with the human lives it touches day after day.

So relationships with the city, the county and the region have been a priority. Among the highlights of each year, the Durham Miners’ Service on Gala Day stands out, an event never to be missed for the way the people of the North- East throng the cathedral and claim it as their own.

THE dean is an ex officio trustee of Durham University; this, with lecturing in its department of theology and religion, has been a big part of life here. I have loved the liveliness students bring to Durham.

It has been good to build partnerships with Durham County Council, the erstwhile city council and the other local authorities, to have a role in agencies of care such as St C u t h b e r t ’ s Hospice, and as a deputy lieutenant to contribute a little to the life of County Durham. A cathedral is the “seat”

(cathedra) of the bishop. In a short decade, I have worked with three bishops of Durham, and we are waiting for the fourth.

LIKE deans, bishops bring their own distinctive gifts, insights and ways of leading.

But all of them have loved the cathedral and worked with the cathedral chapter to help it flourish.

Indeed, I have been lucky to serve with many gifted and committed colleagues, something it is impossible to put a price on. I believe we have also done much to professionalise the way the cathedral is managed: it is very good to lead such a skilled staff team.

The cathedral is a cherished piece of heritage, loved by people across the world. It has been a rare privilege to get to know this marvellous building and care for our part of the World Heritage Site.

We have had our share of worries about the fabric and the costs of conserving it, but there have been major enrichments of the building, such as the new PA system, floodlighting, the Transfiguration Window, and the Chapel of the Holy Cross.

Much time has been spent laying plans for the Open Treasure project, of which the new shop in the Undercroft is a first manifestation.

The next step is to renew the Monks’ Dormitory and Great Kitchen as exhibition spaces for our Cuthbert relics, Magna Carta, Saxon manuscripts and many other treasures.

This will transform people’s enjoyment of the cathedral and help them u n d e r s t a n d something of its meaning as an historic C h r i s t i a n church.

The heart of all this lies in the o r d i n a r y and everyday.

If I ask m y s e l f what most s u s t a i n s and inspires me in this role, it is the rhythm of p r a y e r each morning and e v e n i n g with colleagues and community.

Music plays a vital part in this. I am immensely proud of our choir and of how during this decade we have welcomed girl choristers who form their own treble line alongside the boys; and launched a highly successful music outreach programme. Daily choral evensong gives musical and spiritual sustenance of the highest order.

After ten years, will I ever live without it?