Last week, Daniel Neville, Norwich School pupil and Norwich Cathedral Chorister, was voted for by his fellow choristers to become the Boy Bishop for an Evensong service in the Cathedral..

The special service on Friday 6th December celebrated St Nicholas, the patron saint of children. The custom of Boy Bishop was widespread in the Middle Ages, when the Bishop of the Diocese would symbolically stand to one side on St Nicholas Day and allow a boy to take his place.Traditionally, the boy would remain in his role until Holy Innocents’ Day on 28 December and the boy would lead his peers, usually fellow choristers, in the taking of all the services except the Mass.

The idea of bringing back the custom of a child Bishop to Norwich Cathedral was to highlight the importance of young people, and the service is now planned to become an annual event.

The Festal Evensong on St Nicholas’ Day was also attended by the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, who blessed Daniel and presented him with a book of prayers.

Daniel read words from the Book of Job and in his sermon he spoke of the importance of looking after our planet and of understanding truth. Read Bishop Daniel's full sermon on our blog page.