A cathedral (French cathédrale from Lat. cathedra, "seat" from the Greek kathedra (καθέδρα), seat, bench, from kata "down" + hedra seat, base, chair) is a Christian church which contains the seat of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Although the word "cathedral" is sometimes loosely applied, churches with the function of "cathedral" occur specifically and only in those denomination with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, and some Lutheran and Methodist churches. In the Greek Orthodox Church, the terms kathedrikos naos (literally: "cathedral shrine") is sometimes used for the church at which an archbishop or "metropolitan" presides. The term "metropolis" (literally "mother city") is used more commonly than "diocese" to signify an area of governance within the church.

There are certain variations on the use of the term "cathedral"; for example, some pre-Reformation cathedrals in Scotland now within the Church of Scotland still retain the term cathedral, despite that church's Presbyterian polity that does not have bishops. The same occurs in Germany, where Protestant churches (many with a presbyterian or congregational polity) co-operate under an umbrella organisation, the Evangelical Church in Germany, with some retaining cathedrals or using the term as a merely honorary title and function, void of any hierarchical supremacy. As cathedrals are often particularly impressive edifices, the term "cathedral" is often applied colloquially to any large and impressive church, regardless of whether it functions as a cathedral, such as the Crystal Cathedral in California or figuratively to imply that a church is of outstanding beauty such as St John the Baptist, Tideswell, known as the "Cathedral of the Peak".

David Macaulay (born December 2, 1946) is an author and illustrator. Now a resident of Norwich, Vermont, United States, he is an alumnus and faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Born in Lancashire, UK, Macaulay moved to Bloomfield, New Jersey at the age of eleven. He began drawing while in the United States. After graduating from high school in Cumberland, Rhode Island in 1964, he enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), from which he received a bachelor's degree in architecture. He spent his fifth year at RISD in the European Honors Program, studying in Rome, Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Macaulay's books have sold more than two million copies in the United States, been translated into a dozen languages, and been widely praised. Time magazine said of his work, "What [Macaulay] draws, he draws better than any other pen-and-ink illustrator in the world". His numerous awards include the MacArthur Fellows Program award, the Caldecott Medal, won for his book Black and White, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Christopher Award, an American Institute of Architects Medal, the Washington Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award, the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, and a Dutch Silver Slate Pencil Award. He was a two-time nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and is the recipient of the Bradford Washburn Award, presented by the Museum of Science in Boston to an outstanding contributor to science.

Tomasz Bagiński (Polish pronunciation: [ˈtɔmaʂ baˈɡʲiɲskʲi], born January 10, 1976 in Białystok) a Polish illustrator, animator and director. He is a self-taught artist.

His first film Rain has won a couple of local awards and became the passport to Platige Image company, in which he is a creative director. Between 1999 and 2002 he was working on his short film debut,The Cathedral, which in 2002 won the first prize at SIGGRAPH, the biggest festival of animation and special effects, and a year later was nominated for an Oscar for the best animated short film.

In 2004, he made his second short film, Fallen Art. In 2005, he received another award at the SIGGRAPH festival, becoming the only artist in history who has won two main awards. Fallen Art also received a BAFTA Award for Best Short Animation and a Grand Prix for Digital Shorts at Golden Horse Film Festival 2005 (shared with Jarek Sawko and Piotr Sikora). Bagiński has also created cinematics for The Witcher computer game based on the books by Andrzej Sapkowski.

Tanita Tikaram (born 12 August 1969, Münster, Germany) is a British pop/folk singer-songwriter, best known for the hits "Twist in My Sobriety" and "Good Tradition" from her 1988 debut album, Ancient Heart.

Tikaram was born in Münster, Germany, the daughter of a Malaysian mother, Fatimah Rohani, and an Indo-Fijian father, Pramod Tikaram. Her father's military career meant that she spent her early life in Germany before moving to Basingstoke, Hampshire, England when she was in her early teens. She is the younger sister of the actor Ramon Tikaram and the great-niece of Sir Moti Tikaram, who was the first Lord Chief Justice of an independent Fiji and the world's longest-serving national ombudsman.^{[citation needed]} She studied A-level politics, sociology and English at Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke: her final grades were AAB.^{[citation needed]} She had a place at Manchester University to study English and American literature but left in order to follow her musical career.^{[citation needed]}

Tikaram started singing in nightclubs while she was still a teenager and came to the attention of WEA Records. Her debut album, Ancient Heart, produced by Rod Argent and Peter Van Hooke, was released in September 1988 when she was 19-years-old. The album peaked at Number 3 in the United Kingdom, where it was certified Double Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. It also became an international hit and led to a world concert tour. The singles "Good Tradition" and "Twist In My Sobriety" were Top 10 hits in Europe, the latter accompanied by an award-winning sepia coloured video set in a rural village in the Bolivian Altiplano and directed by Gerard de Thame. The track was covered by Liza Minnelli for her 1989 album Results, produced by the Pet Shop Boys.