THE P RTAL


February 2011


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, aſter all,


designed specifically so that from every seat in the church the great High Altar can be clearly seen - no hiding behind pillars here! Te sanctuary is spacious, the altar raised up and clearly visible. Te 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 multi- national congregations who look on this place as a spiritual home. Ten 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,


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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 Tames 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. Te 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. Te exterior is


dramatic from any viewpoint and at any time of day and the interior appears larger than the exterior! Te 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. Te 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.


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