We paid a visit to Lynn's aunt Mary in St Albans and spent a lovely time catching up and visiting the cathedral (of which Mary is a trustee)
This is a truly fascinating building, Mary is very proud of the rose window which Lynn's late uncle Ken helped to arrange finance for the restoration. It is very beautiful. Simply stunning, which is what stained glass must have been to our medieval cousins for whom cathedrals would have been the most obvious and powerful expressions of faith and the church.
A particular feature of St Albans (the first British saint) is the multi secular nature of worship here. Particularly resonant in this day and age, As an unreconstructed atheist I find this a fantastic move forward and is to be applauded.
As Lynne loves to visit churches I initially felt obliged to go along as our travels progressed, however I must admit that I now find them incredible both as repositories of history and in a very grand scale, expressions of both faith and belief. My late uncle Trevor (also an avid church visitor and lifelong agnostic) told me once that there is a difference but for the life of me I can no longer remember what it is. However tramping around churches in Dorset planted acorns that have lately begun to germinate. Of course his introduction of Arthur Ransome books has been directing my life for some time.
But back to the cathedral. There is also a very human scale to be discovered, I refer to the practical aspects of a building. In St Albans for example there is an obvious difference between some parts of the construction, evident particularly in some of the arches in the nave. For me these things reach out across the ages, I can see in my minds eye some stonemasons discussing and arguing with patrons about common problems of construction sometimes because of the evolving nature of these things and in one notable instance where part of the building fell down!
What remains is an astonishing construction with a very powerful atmosphere, its also incredibly beautiful.
Alex also accompanied us and we finished a delightful visit by having lunch in St Albans before heading back for home.
No comments:
Post a Comment