THE P RTAL
February 2011 Page 5
prayer and light a candle before the Blessed Sacrament or the ancient statue of Our Lady of Westminster , to make one ’ s confession , to squeeze into a limited break one of the lunch-time Masses , to take part in one of the great sung services or simply to sit and rest awhile in the always-busy but never noisy body of the church . It is simply the house of God - no , wrong word - the home of God , and as a home should be , homely and welcoming .
Splendid
And yet , on the Grand Occasion , Westminster Cathedral can be very splendid . It was , after all , designed specifically so that from every seat in the church the great High Altar can be clearly seen - no hiding behind pillars here ! The sanctuary is spacious , the altar raised up and clearly visible . The two organs and above all the choir have long been representative of the very best of their kind , internationally famous and much recorded and broadcast - indeed “ Choral Vespers “ is being broadcast as I write this , the ancient plainsong sounding effortless and timeless . It ’ s not just another English Cathedral Choir either - its sound and its style are unique and it is just as competent at the most modern music as it is in the traditional chant . Perhaps I ’ m biased , but I do not think that there is another church in the world that could have matched the wonderful Mass recently when Pope Benedict XVI celebrated there during his State visit to Britain - and day by day and week by liturgical week the glorious music and the carefully performed liturgy glorify God and inspire his people .
The Church is People
I was asked to write about Westminster Cathedral and I have so far really only written about people , but I make no apology for that . I ’ m sure we have all been told many times that “ the Church is the people ” and it may well be that those joining the Ordinariates will more than most have to experience that it is people , not buildings , that make up the body of Christ , the Church . Westminster Cathedral is people : from the Archbishop on his cathedra , his assistant bishops , the cathedral staff - clerical and lay -, to the great multinational congregations who look on this place as a spiritual home . Then it is the focus for the Roman Catholic people of this country - a curiously undefined role , a bit like that of its counterpart at the other end of Victoria Street , Westminster Abbey . It is also , of course ,
a focus for and the mother church of the diocese - that sprawling and populous area reaching from Enfield in the east to Staines in the West and from the River Thames to the far north of Hertfordshire . Finally , it is also a Parish Church , with its own local congregation , living in the immediate vicinity and worshipping there week by week .
The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ
It was perhaps unkind of me to refer to this great building as one which was run-up on the cheap . In truth it is a triumph which rose out of necessity . Consider the hundreds of years which many of England ’ s ancient cathedrals required to arrive at their present state ; whereas Westminster ’ s foundation stone was laid in 1895 and the structure completed in just eight years . The Cathedral Church of Westminster , which is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ , was designed in the Early Christian Byzantine style by the Victorian architect John Francis Bentley . The exterior is dramatic from any viewpoint and at any time of day and the interior appears larger than the exterior ! The mosaics with which the interior brickwork is , in part , decorated are works of incredible beauty and in many different styles - whether this internal decoration will ever be completed is unknown , but little by little the work continues , with the mosaic of St David blessed by Pope Benedict only last year . The Stations of the Cross are also notable , by an artist whose reputation attracted controversy - they are by Eric Gill .
I am not going to attempt to write a history of the Cathedral , nor an architectural assessment of its design and significance , nor a description of its various features and points of interest . My purpose in this short piece is to say something of those qualities which cannot be gleaned from guidebooks and from the internet - though if you Google “ Westminster Cathedral ” you will have about 599,000 sites to explore !
Sermons in Stones
Sermons in stones ? Well , perhaps not stones , but these bricks have plenty to say to Christians about the faith of the Church - unchanging and yet ever new ; about the worship of God ; about the family of the church ; about the focus for unity ; about a respect and appreciation of the past and about an eagerness to reach forward into the future .