Noel Robertson, professional musician and worship leader, talks about the role of worship in Christian life. - Worship: A vital part of life for Christians. - The long tradition: a history of worship in Durham Cathedral. - Connecting earth and heaven. - Different styles of worship for different times and places, but the same message. - Beyond church: Memorials and celebrations. - Respecting the past; finding new expressions of faith to ensure a vigorous future.
	Download all the documents for this section in Acrobat PDF format. This document includes the transcript of the video, the activities and the collective worship.
	My name is Noel Robertson. I am a professional musician and a full time worship leader. I'm based here in Tooting, South London, but I travel all round the country playing and teaching other churches how to enhance their worship. [Father be glorified tonight...] To me, Christian worship is a vital part of my life and it has been essential to the life of this country for centuries. It's quite easy to forget that in a modern church [Give the Lord a handclap in this place...] But go to an ancient building and you soon realize that our Christian history goes back a long way. This is the cathedral in Durham. It has been a place of worship for just over nine hundred years. But its story goes back even further than that, ever since a group of monks chose this spot as a resting place for the remains of Cuthbert, the great Celtic saint, who brought Christianity to the north of England, back in the seventh century. The shrine of St Cuthbert has brought people to worship in Durham for centuries. In the mediaeval world, cathedrals symbolized the connection between heaven and earth. They were also mysterious places and the worship would have been completely different to what I'm used to. Back then, services were led by monks sung in chant and conducted in Latin. But though they way they did things was very different, what they did was just the same as we do today. We today, just like they did yesterday, used prayer and music because they help us speak to God. Like them, when we hear the Bible we find him speaking to us. And at the heart of our worship, as it was for the earliest Christians, is the communion service, celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus. Of course many churches today practice these things in many different ways. We are free to express ourselves in ways that are relevant to our culture and tradition. Whatever the style, though, the substance is just the same. But don't think it's just the church that's been affected by all these years of history. Even though only a minority of people now attend church on a regular basis, when we as a nation want to celebrate or mourn together, something of the old ways of worship resurface. I believe that without the past we don't have a future. Durham Cathedral is a reminder that our traditions of worship are ancient and their roots run deep. We have to learn from our history, to adapt our worship and to find new ways to express our faith. If we do that, then rest assured: the church will still be worshipping in another thousand years.