sabbatical 2019 - Canterbury Cathedral

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Canterbury Cathedral is a "thin place". We have found it very holy. Took a wonderful tour yesterday, worship several times a day, and just wandering around where pilgrims have been wandering for centuries is quite remarkable.

The Quire is where worship is happening while the nave is being renovated. However Morning Prayer and morning Eucharist are held in a different one of the many chapels each morning. When I attended the King's School almost 50 years ago,our Sunday morning worship was held in the crypt chapel in this picture. It was here that I also practiced the organ. Notice the hanging sculpture (looks suspended) made out of only Medieval nails taken from a window renovation.

Thye shrine to Archbishop Thomas Becket, who was murdered in the Cathedral, is quite evocative. 4 soldiers attacked him, but the sculpture has only 2 swords, the other 2 being represented by the shadow of light that shines on the sculpture, hence revealing the darkness of night out of which the shadowy soldiers came looking for Becket. There are quite a few modern day sculptures, stained glass, furniture and paintings, that somehow do not fell incongruent in this Medieval space. It seems this is a very "living church" with much attention to today - not just 900 years ago when it was built.

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