Heavenly light and earthly lighting

Heavenly light and earthly lighting
A sermon by Kenneth Padley for 12 January 2025

The temple of Artemis in the city of Sardis ranked among the largest and most stunning worship spaces of the ancient Greek world. Alas, time and tectonics have taken their toll, and it now lies in ruins. In addition, the temple was subject to deliberate desecration by an early follower of Jesus. They left behind two words from an act of exorcism, crudely inscribed onto the temple’s wall. The words read… FWS and ZWH – Light and Life. This graffiti quotes from the Christmas gospel, the opening verses of John chapter one. Our Christian forebear knew that pagan Artemis was nothing because in Jesus is life and that life is the light of all people (John 1.4).

FWS and ZWH. Light and Life – themes which run throughout this greater Christmas season, as we rejoice in the nativity of the incarnate Lord and celebrate his gradual revelation, his epiphany. To this end, today we hear his name magnified at baptism. Next week it will be his first miracle, the week after his first sermon.

FWS and ZWH. Fresh light has been shed recently into our own Temple through the introduction of LED lighting. This was installed outside in 2023 and then inside last autumn. We will be releasing publicity about this project in a few days’ time, so today I’d like to offer a brief theological and environmental rationale for why we have undertaken this upgrade.

Back in October 2023, our in-house electrician Phil sidled up to me and told me that he had just bought some light bulbs.
Err, thanks Phil, I thought. That’s useful to know.
‘But…’ Phil said, getting to his point, ‘…they’re becoming very expensive and hard to source’.
Ah, I thought, the penny starting to drop.
‘How long have we got?’ I asked.
‘About 18 months’, he said.
Bother I thought. Not much time at all.
Our architect had been flagging for some time that the Cathedral’s lighting should be changed to LED. Such a replacement would reduce fire risk and support our access priorities – improving illumination for those with impaired sight and mobility. However, complexity and cost had kept us limping on with the old system. But by late 2023 it was clear that action was urgently needed.

Fortunately, the looming cloud bore several silver linings.
• Firstly, we were content with the location of the previous equipment. This meant we were looking for what electricians call ‘relamping’ – not the design of an expensive new lighting scheme.
• A like-for like replacement would also mean that we did not need a formal permission process, just the advice and encouragement of our Fabric Advisory Committee.
• Thirdly, because the old lighting system used so much electricity, we knew that LEDs would pay for themselves through lower running costs across the projected twenty-year lifespan of the equipment.

After a rigorous tender process, we appointed Spectrum Electrical of Yeovil to undertake the work, using equipment supplied by the market-leading German manufacturer ERCO. Among our other research, we appreciated a site visit to Sherborne Abbey to see a successful Spectrum/ERCO relamping project, similar to what we needed.

The contract price was a little over half a million pounds. We were fortunate at this point to have funds gifted as well as funds in reserve. The Friends of Salisbury Cathedral is a charity which exists to, quote, “support the Chapter of Salisbury in maintaining, preserving, improving and enhancing the fabric, fittings, ornaments, furniture, music, and monuments of the Cathedral and to support its life, worship, and ministry.” The Friends granted a magnificent £200K towards the relamping, in addition to having already paid the entire cost of the external relamping in 2023.

The grant from the Friends was supplemented from a historic legacy fund. Together they covered the entire cost of the work. I cannot commend enough the foresight of our major legator, nor thank the Friends sufficiently for enabling this project to proceed so smoothly. The Friends are represented this morning by their chair Luke March and other trustees, me included. Please do speak with us over coffee about what the Friends do. We will be badged up! You may also be interested in a Friends evening in a few weeks’ time which will demonstrate the lighting and include a recital by John Challenger of the new chamber organ, an instrument which has been largely paid for by another grant from the Friends. If you’re not yet a member, think about joining the Friends today so that you can guarantee a place at this event.

The relamping project completed on budget and on time for the start of Advent. Our colleagues from Spectrum were consummate professionals in working around the Cathedral’s busy schedule of worship, visits and events. I am delighted with the feedback received about the effect of the lighting for both worship and visiting. It balances illumination with atmosphere for liturgy, and there are parts of the building that our Guides can show off as never before – medieval paint under the triforium arches and the blocked doorway to the former glazing workshop above the Trinity chapel, to name but two.

However, the greatest impact of the relamping is that it lowers our carbon footprint. Cutting our individual and corporate carbon consumption is a Christian duty in an age of climate change. It is also an Anglican mark of mission and one of the Cathedral’s strategic goals. This is because climate justice is an imperative for the most vulnerable peoples on earth.

The Cathedral and its offices are already on a green electricity tariff. This means that, notionally, all our electricity is sourced from renewable sources. However, if we can use less electricity, more power from green sources remains in the Grid – so less fossil fuel is needed to make up the overall national demand.

The 2023 external LEDs reduced our outside lighting power demand by two thirds. The saving from the internal relamping is over 80% – and at clerestory level, more than 90%. We have even had a clever device fitted called a photostat; this will balance internal light depending on what the sun is doing outside, extending the life of the equipment and saving even more carbon. The combined effect of the internal and external relamping will save about 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. To put this in perspective, this is an impact roughly five times greater than the solar panels installed on the cloister roof a few years ago.

There is always more to do. We need to make some tweaks to the new system and add a few more lights, especially in the Trinity chapel. In due course we will also need to install LED lighting into the cloisters and chapter house. And the mountain to reach carbon net zero remains huge because the real elephant in the room is heating. We are exploring the scope for a ground source heat pump scheme. This would be a massive job and is still years away, but it would save ten times as much carbon as the relamping.

I started at one ancient temple; let’s finish in another. The Jewish Temple in Jerusalem had a light so great it was said to illuminate the whole city. It is no coincidence that this was the backdrop for Jesus’ claim to be the light of the world. His is the true light which has come into the world. Each and every one of us is called to carry that light in our hearts to the dark places of our lives and world. And to help equip us for that mission, it is a joy today to give thanks for a building that is better illuminated than at any point in its 800-year history.