We're very excited that Alfred, one of our choristers, is through to the final of Mastermind, to be broadcast at 7.30pm on Good Friday. Find out more about his journey to the final below, and fingers crossed for Friday evening!

We are excited to welcome 250 school children for a Religious Education event to the Minster today. We remain open for visitors, but I’m sure you’ll understand that opportunities for quiet reflection will be limited between 9.30am and 3pm

Sadly our email server is down today and possibly for a few days. If you need to get in contact with us, please call us on 01482 868 540 Monday-Friday 9am-5pm

Many thanks to one of our congregation - Tony Kelham - for putting together a beautiful selection of Memories of Mike Nicholson, 1947-2018. We would like to share these with you all: Mike was a good firm friend for many years. He was a selfless man, who helped others in many ways. Few people knew of some of the good things he did. We were both in the same situation, older relatives having died, no siblings and never married, so therefore became "brotherly”. We both shared a love for the Church of England and would discuss our faith. Mike was immensely supportive of me, always. He often went with me when I took services at Woodmansey and Routh. His friendship will be very hard to replace. DAVID JEFFERSON ………………………………………………………………………….... I remember being with Mike at Breakfast@God’s in the Parish Hall and, at other times, helping him to prepare the refreshments in church. Mike got the food from Tesco, and let me take home anything left over. It was good meeting Mike for a chat at Caffé Nero, and being with him at Beer and Carols in the Sun Inn and at the Warton Arms. Mike liked Guinness. Mike would often take me in his car to places I wanted to visit. I am from Hessle and about the time I lost my uncle, Mike took me to a concert at Hessle Church. He paid for my ticket. PHILLIP KIRBY ……………………………………………………………………………… I remember Mike’s utter reliability and not a care what the job was, he would do it to his utmost. His care for people, especially those on the edge was phenomenal, especially the younger generation; going the extra mile both figuratively and literally was his maxim. A great sense of humour, readily shared (to which one had to listen intently to get the punchline) but above all an abiding deep love for the Church of God, what it stood for and loyal to its idiosyncrasies. I enjoyed his company and miss him greatly, not many characters around like him these days. ………………………………………………………………………..…... A long term stalwart of the Minster Men's Fellowship, Mike contributed with pithy and succinct comments on any subject being discussed and, even if we struggled with the Irish accent and speed of delivery, we always got the point. A wonderful man of deep faith and integrity, he will be sorely missed by the Group. …………………………………………………………………………..... Mike always stayed to help us at God’s breakfast on a Sunday morning, he loved coffee and would drink up the dregs! Always cheerful and telling us stories of past escapades. We got to know Mike initially at youth cafe. Mike and Pat were on the toilet duty together! He scared the life out of the naughty ones trying to have a smoke and would happily mop up the attempted flooding pranks...nothing fazed him. ……………………………………………………………………………… I remember Mike as a delightful, erudite, committed, sincere, faithful and extremely helpful man, always willing to get on with anything he felt he could usefully do. I miss him as I'm sure do many others. ……………………………………………………………………………... When we were prayer visiting in Woodmansey last July, a man said he would come to St Peter’s Church when the prayers were offered. He duly came on the Sunday and asked “Where’s the Irish bloke?” I replied that Mike was away that weekend, on a trip to Dublin. It was a special trip, for his wake. He did not want to miss all the fun and fellowship of his own wake. So he’d decided to hold one on his 70th birthday, rather than miss it later on. Mike told me that his mother died in her chair, at her side was the Times crossword for that day, duly completed. Her well lived life came to a timely end in her home. Something similar could be said of Mike. TONY KELHAM ……………………………………………………………………………… I accompanied Mike when we were Prayer Visiting. He could 'talk the hind legs off a donkey' but on the doorstep he was jovial, to the point, tactful and kind. He said he had learned this over many years of political canvassing. Mike was greeted warmly by people who recognised him as their teacher or coach. ……………………………………………………………………………… When we had the sponsored cycle ride on New Year’s Day, Mike would set off early for a fast walk of the 17 mile route calling in at the daughter churches. We would meet up with him a couple of times during the morning. ……………………………………………………………………………… I had the privilege of being part of the Woodmansey prayer visiting team alongside Mike. He had a strong faith and knew just how to listen and talk to people. No matter how busy he was, he would be there – often having come straight from a school sporting event. We usually heard his car before we saw him, he had a unique way of driving and his car was his “kit bag and office”. We’re going to miss you Mike. ……………………………………………………………………………… In 2015 when Mike noticed that I wasn't too well, he would come to my house at 10:00a.m. on a Sunday and push my disabled daughter, Rachel in her wheelchair to the Minster for the morning service. ………………………………………………………………………….…… At Wolfreton Mr Nicholson encouraged me to take up cross country running. At first I could not get into our team and just ran as a guest at the back of the field. But Mr Nicholson would take me, in his famous mini-metro, from my house to school for running training before lessons began. I hated this training, but clearly gained a lot from it. In my final year at school I was 66th in the English Schools event! In 1999 whilst still at school I qualified as an International GB athlete and competed at the first Biathle World Championships. Mike and his friends from Christians in Sport supported me financially for a number of years and when the number of biathletes grew locally they also supported them. In 2006 the World Biathle Championships were held in Manchester. Mike took an army of supporters to watch me. I gave it my all, and to my surprise won the world title. I was thrilled and so was Mike. On the YouTube video you can still hear him shouting "Come on Gregan". If it wasn't for Mr Nicholson, I would not have been a World Champion and certainly not an athletics coach. Recently, a lot of people have told me that I was his greatest success story, something which has really touched me. This is my personal tribute to Mike, my teacher, athletics coach and very close family friend. His passing has hit my family hard. GREGAN CLARKSON ……………………………………………………………….…………….. I played ancient music with Mike Nicholson in the Kingston Consort. He was not only a keen player, but also had an amazing fund of knowledge of the history and languages associated with the music - so much so, that we actually played for a rather short time in each session! I last spoke to him only a few weeks ago, as he was shifting a grand piano in Beverley Minster. ……………………………………………………………………………… My favourite memory of Mike is his ‘the leprechauns made me do it’ T- shirt. I thought it was hilarious! I never met a man who looked more like a leprechaun than Mike. ……………………………………………………………………….……... I have probably prayed more with Mike than with anyone else in my life - Morning and Evening Prayer most days of most weeks. I will treasure his reading of the Old Testament, and now always use his pronunciations: Sy-na-ee for Sinai and Bashan with a hard ‘a’ rather than Bayshan. I will remember his hatred of the setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Kelly in the key of C. I will remember the most faithful of disciples. He would get to a Communion service on any day he could. He prayed the office. Generously he would do this in the Common Worship form, though his real love was the Book of Common Prayer, and he’d use that at home. When he prayed for specific things in open prayer it was, more often than not, to lament the brokenness for the church and to pray for its unity. Mike and I went to the same college in Durham: University College, or ‘Castle’. It’s motto was ‘Non nobis solum’ – ‘not for ourselves alone’. I think Mike lived that out. But he took it further. The Latin title of Psalm 115 is ‘Non nobis, Domine’, and Mike liked to think of that as the real Castle motto. He always mentioned it when we prayed it together. It sums him up superbly. “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give the praise.” I praise God for Mike, and think of him every day as I pray the office. The psalm ends: “we will praise the Lord: from this time forth for ever more. Praise the Lord.” JEREMY FLETCHER …………………………………………………………………….……….. Mike was a great friend to St Peter’s Church. He often distributed flyers and prayer cards around Woodmansey, delivering over 350 before Christmas 2017. Mike was the inspiration for our carol singing around the village and in the Warton Arms, his strong tuneful voice ensuring we were heard by residents. He was a regular at Morning Prayer. If we had no organist Mike would produce a recorder and play to accompany the singing. Once, when Mike was slightly late, we used recorded music. Afterwards he wore a hastily made badge which said “Keep Church Music Live”. Everyone enjoyed the joke, and respected Mike’s sentiment. On New Year’s Day he walked the route of the Cycle event, having left bottles of water around the route on New Year’s Eve. At St Peter’s he would have some Christmas cake to see him through the last leg back to the Minster. Apologising for not staying, as he “didn’t want to seize up”, Mike would depart swiftly, cake in hand. ……………………………………………………………………………… Mike was a mainstay of Humberside Schools athletics having been both Secretary and Treasurer of Humberside Schools as well as being a kingpin of the East Riding Schools. His enthusiasm was infectious and one did not need a public address system when he was about. NORTHERN ATHLETE WEBSITE ……………………………………………………………………………… At Beverley Grammar School, when the school pitches were too waterlogged for football, we were sent, wearing our football boots, on ad hoc cross country runs over the Westwood. Most of us would take a short cut across the golf greens. But, “Nick”, as I knew him then, always stuck to the route. I can still picture him making his lonely way up by the Newbald Road. He would rather be right than popular. Who could have guessed that one day he would carry an Olympic torch? TED HOAR …………………………………………….……………………………….. At the Monks Walk, in 2017, Mike volunteered to ‘pipe in the haggis’ for the Burns Night Supper. On the night itself he produced a mediaeval instrument which I think was a shawm. The clear but mellow, reedy sound captured the attention of the full pub and I shall remember always parading up and down the bar behind him, holding the haggis on it’s platter above my head, much to the amazement of all the customers. He did us proud! After preaching my first ever sermon in Beverley Minster, I was keen to have some positive feedback from members of the congregation as I shook their hands as they left. Mike in his turn, shook hands with me, stood back and paused, then offered: ‘Not too bad. Only four or five heresies!’ ……………………………………………………………………………….. In preparation for the Beverley Passion Play, Mark Merryweather was rehearsing turning over the tables in the Temple. He did so with such vigour that Mike was knocked across the Parish Hall into a radiator, sustaining a serious black eye. Nevertheless, the next day he went to Wolfreton to teach. His class asked how this injury had come about. Mike replied “Jesus hit me!”

Mike Nicholson's funeral will take place tomorrow (13/2/18) at 4pm in the Minster. Here are some of Mike's own memories - we hope they put a smile on your face! Mike’s own memories, Beverley Minster Parish Magazine, July 2013 LAMPADA FERENS “The lot is fallen unto me in a fair ground: Yea, I have a goodly heritage.” Psalm 16 This is not the story of a Damascene conversion. I was born on “an island of saints and scholars” whose elixir I still frequently consume. (The advertisement is correct – it is “good for you”) My father came from Sutton, near Hull, and was a lifelong member of the Church of England. He moved to Dublin to work after his colleagues showed reluctance to exchange the civilisation of Hull for the barbarity of a land where they didn’t even play Rugby League! There he met my mother who was a teacher at a girls’ school. She was the daughter of a long line of Church of Ireland clergy. (It was, I think, a disappointment to some of her relatives that I did not reverse my collar – but in this respect their loss was undoubtedly the Anglican Communion’s gain). Their wedding plans were interrupted by Herr Hitler so I did not arrive until 1947. My father’s work also took him to Scotland, before we arrived in England in 1960. I still live in my parents’ house. Thus, having been baptised into the Church of Ireland, I was confirmed into the Church of England. As a pupil at Beverley Grammar School, I had the good fortune to be exceptionally well taught by a group of men who, despite varying degrees of eccentricity (or maybe because thereof!) were excellent role-models for an aspiring teacher. One of these was David Ingate – a former organist of the Minster – who, along with his colleague, Bruce Jamson, awoke and developed my love of music. We also had a Welsh P.E. teacher who aroused my lifelong interest in Rugby and Athletics, despite my total lack of skill in any sport. (Eugenicists, please note – my parents were both excellent sportspeople!) Another fortunate occurrence at this time was the Cuban Missiles crisis. The British government became aware that, if it was to fight a war with the Russians, it might be a good idea for somebody to speak their language – even if it was only to shout “Вы сдались” (“You have surrendered”) at them through a megaphone. They offered incentives to any school with a Russian-speaking teacher to introduce the subject to the curriculum. Beverley was so equipped – another excellent teacher who seemed to be approaching the end of his career, George Whiteley. He was promptly re-engaged and stayed at the school on a part-time basis to teach Russian until, I think, he was 73. More than half of his Russophone students ended up studying the subject at university. In my case that university was Durham where I studied at the same college as the Rev’d Jeremy Fletcher (although, being slightly younger than me, he was there later). Our college was Durham Castle – actually, when I was there, we had two and you can see the other one in the background when cricket is televised from Chester-le-Street. Durham Castle had two splendid chapels and an equally splendid chaplain, Peter Brett, who later became Vice-Provost of Canterbury. He introduced me to a very different type of worship from that to which I was accustomed at Beverley. The first time that I had a go with a thurible I did not dare to tell my parents in case I was thrown out of home for Popery – great-grandfather was a leading Orange Man. The college also had links with the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield and the Society of St Francis at Alnmouth. I was very much taken with both of these and had a brief flirtation with the idea of monasticism. However, the absence of a suitable Anglican teaching order meant that I did not follow this path. Doing my Post-Graduate Certificate of Education, I acquired a girlfriend who found her first job at Wolfreton School. I thought it would be good to start my career there and had the good fortune to be appointed to a Modern Languages post. After four years she married a Classicist – after 42 years I am still associated with the school, helping with music and sport, producing pantomimes and teaching a little Russian. Does history repeat itself? It seems to me that everything so far has fallen into place thanks to the grace of God. May I, then, conclude with the words of Cardinal Newman, “So long Thy power has blest me, Sure it still will lead me on” MICHAEL NICHOLSON