Caian’s role in Cathedral vaccination clinic

  • 09 March 2021
  • 2 minutes

Salisbury Cathedral is known for many reasons. Its impressive spire, its collection of Magna Carta artefacts, and now it is playing a pivotal role in this country’s comeback from Covid, thanks to the work of Dean Nick Papadopulos.

Nick read History at Caius and after graduating in 1988 completed a law conversion course and was called to the Bar in 1990. He practised criminal law for seven years before beginning his ordination training in 1997.

“History and Law are wonderful intellectual disciplines for the formation of a theologian,” he recalls.

“The former teaches the importance of narrative, context, and source-evaluation; the latter forensic skill and deductive reasoning. Priests who have no sense of history are a liability. I owe mine to (former Caius Master) Neil McKendrick, my Director of Studies Professor Abulafia and others.”

Since his ordination, Nick worked as a curate (in inner city Portsmouth), a Bishop’s Chaplain, a Vicar in central London, and a Cathedral Canon, before becoming Dean of Salisbury Cathedral in 2018. His time as Dean has been nothing short of eventful. He took up his post in the wake of the Novichok attack in 2018, and in his second month there was an attempted theft of the Cathedral’s priceless 1215 copy of the Magna Carta. They had 2019 to recover – and then the pandemic hit.

In December 2020, just as the first Covid-19 vaccines received approval, Nick offered the cathedral to be used as a vaccination centre. Now there are queues in the cloisters, 12 vaccine booths in the transept, triage space in the nave and refrigerator storage in the magnificent side-chapels.

“It’s been eventful and non-stop but the most amazing privilege,” says Nick.

“We’ve learned to worship online – and currently have the joy of hosting a vaccination clinic. More than 10,000 local people have received their jabs in their Cathedral. I’m very proud of that!”

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