DAREDEVIL clerics performed Mission Impossible-style stunts to launch Portsmouth Cathedral’s £1m appeal.

Cathedral precentor Canon Nick Ash takes the plunge down the west wall

Worshippers watched the bishop and the cathedral dean bring the first donation by boat across Portsmouth Harbour before the bishop’s chaplain and cathedral precentor abseiled down the side of the cathedral with the second donations. The eye-catching stunts marked the public launch of an appeal to help transform the cathedral.

The Anglican bishop, the Rt Rev Kenneth Stevenson, and the dean of Portsmouth Cathedral, the Very Rev David Brindley, travelled across Portsmouth Harbour in the Queen’s Harbour Master’s launch before the service. They carried the first donations to the cathedral’s ‘Continuing the Voyage’ appeal, as well as seawater to be used during the service.

They were met at the shoreline by the cathedral choir and dignitaries, who then processed through Old Portsmouth to the cathedral in the High Street. There crowds of worshippers and onlookers watched the bishop’s chaplain, the Rev Alex Hughes, and the cathedral precentor, Canon Nick Ash, abseil 100 feet down the west wall of the cathedral, with the help of the Royal Marines.

The special appeal launch service then started with a ceremony in which seawater from Portsmouth Harbour was scattered over the grass to the north of the cathedral, to symbolise the cathedral’s coastal location. The bishop then blessed the spot, where a new refectory will be built as part of the re-development. More than 600 worshippers then took part in the service.

The chairman of the appeal committee, Nigel Atkinson, explained that half the money for the £2m project to re-develop the cathedral and nearby Cathedral House has already been raised privately. He said the cash would be spent on preserving the 12th century east end of the cathedral from damp; creating a new education centre in Cathedral House to attract more school parties; updating the facilities in Cathedral House for community groups that already use it; creating a music centre for cathedral choirs to rehearse; and improving the facilities for visitors in the cathedral, with a new refectory, cathedral shop and a treasury.

“We’re proud of the heritage of the building itself, and the facilities that we can offer to visitors and to the Portsmouth community,” he said. “We are already a centre for arts and music. The project team have only asked for what is essential, and we hope members of our congregation, the diocese and the wider community can help us raise the remaining £1m through donations and organising fund-raising events.”

And the bishop, in his sermon, said: “We want this appeal to succeed because we want this place to be a gathering point – a place of access and a place of mission in a world that is crying out for those who can articulate our deepest spiritual yearnings.”

The fact that £1m has already been raised means that work can start this autumn on repairing the damp in the oldest part of the cathedral and re-developing Cathedral House, which is opposite the cathedral’s north door. Other work will be carried out over the next five years.

An appeal events group will co-ordinate fundraising activities within the cathedral congregation, the local community and across the diocese. It is already planning a summer fete outside the cathedral on June 3, and the cathedral’s five clergy are hoping to cycle around the diocese to visit all 163 churches in the diocese over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

The name of the appeal – ‘Continuing the Voyage’ – reflects the fact that the appeal is continuing the work done since the 12th century to build and extend the church. It only became a cathedral in 1927, when Portsmouth’s Anglican diocese was created, and the current building was only completed in 1991.

Anyone wanting to donate money or to organise a fundraising event for the appeal should contact the appeal office on 023-9234 7401.