Remember Me Digital Memorial Space

Inspired by your support for www.rememberme2020.uk St Paul’s Cathedral is now fundraising for the final stage of Remember Me.  We intend to establish a state-of-the-art flexible digital memorial space within the Cathedral that will house the ‘Remember Me’ online book of memorial, for all faiths and none, in perpetuity in a creative and interactive capacity – a memorial space that can respond to the times that we live in.

TARGET: £100,000 (overall target £1.5m)

By helping to raise the first £100,000, your donation will provide the springboard needed to enable St Paul’s Cathedral to proceed with this project. Whilst additional fundraising takes place, we can secure the digital and design expertise and begin the work needed. 

Background

The public response to the Remember Me memorial project has been overwhelming. To date, more than 11,500 people from across the UK, of all faiths and none, have left an online memorial to a loved one who has died as a result of the pandemic. This online Memorial Book will remain open for as long as needed.

Over £2.7million was donated by the public in 2021 so that a Remember Me physical memorial could be built within the Cathedral.  This new entrance space leads into a place of quiet, reflection and remembrance.  Within this Chapel space, which is free for visitors to enter, it is possible to view the on-line Book of Memorial.  Thanks to the generosity of the public this project was completed and opened in July 2022.

Due to the positive reaction for housing Remember Me within St Paul’s, we are determined to ensure that the memorial project remains within the Cathedral in perpetuity.  All who have died as a result of the pandemic will become part of the collective memorial history of the UK’s symbolic beacon of hope and solace to all that is St Paul’s Cathedral.   

The world continues to change and, whilst we cannot predict the future, sadly there will always be further suffering and sorrow – the threat of current and future conflict, new pandemics and climate change remain with us and will impact each and every one of us, just as COVID has done.   By providing for a significant digital and flexible memorial space, we can respond swiftly to people’s needs and to global events that affect us.  Subject to raising the funding required, St Paul’s intention is to have the capacity to create a fluid memorial space, for all seasons and events.

A Digital Memorial Space 

To create such a responsive and inclusive memorial space will require highly specialized complex long lasting digital hardware and software. The installation needs to have the capacity to show sensitive artwork and designs as well as key words directly relating to each individual who has died.   As a busy working Cathedral, the digital presence must have the capacity to adapt so that the Chapel can be used for worship purposes. By helping to raise the first £100,000, your donation will provide a springboard to enable St Paul’s Cathedral to proceed with this project. Whilst additional fundraising takes place, we can secure the digital and design expertise and begin the work needed. 

Crowdfunder donors have been instrumental, through your generous support, in helping us open our Remember Me Inner Portico project in July 2022.  Now, thanks to you, we dare to be even more ambitious in our vision to build a digital memorial that will serve us now and for future generations.  By having a stronger digital memorial presence within the Cathedral we can ensure that those who have died due to the pandemic are never forgotten.  Our goal is to be swift in successfully raising the £1.5m needed and to be able to launch the opening of a state-of-the art flexible Remember Me memorial space in late 2023.