Across the way from the cathedral is the Herbert arts centre and museum. I saw a doorway marked "Discovering God..." and of course dived in. Was slightly surprised to find a big picture of an apparently naked woman on a horse. Coventry's most famous citizen is remembered for taking all her clothes off and riding a horse through the streets, in some kind of tax-avoidance ruse. There's something about folk heroes of the midlands and paying their dues - Robin Hood and Lady Godiva have that in common.
More seriously, Coventry is well known because the cathedral was mostly destroyed by bombing in WW2. There is a very moving exhibit at the Herbert which has the speech made by the Provost of the Cathedral a few weeks after the cathedral's devastation. He talks about the need to not think about revenge, but instead, after the war, to work with their ex-enemies “to build a kinder, more Christ-like kind of world”. Probably didn't go down too well at the time, but very brave nevertheless. The exhibit had a computer which asked the question, was the Provost right to talk about forgiveness at that time? It logged everyone's answer. I'm glad to say 60% of visitors said the Provost was right; but I wonder how that figure has changed over the years.
And the cathedral itself. I have to say, after a week of cathedrals, Coventry is in my opinion the most colourful, and most beautiful. Surprisingly, also the most peaceful and spiritual. Both Lynn and I felt the presence of God there more so than any of the other ancient buildings we visited. Despite the hundreds of years of prayers in other cathedrals, Coventry is special. Lynn sat in the Lady chapel while I rushed around in gleeful amazement at the towers of coloured glass that dominate the interior. Salisbury, Winchester and the rest are proper grown-up cathedrals, but I'm like a child in wonderland in a place like Coventry.
Coventry cathedral compared with the others we saw is like the Metropolitan cathedral in Liverpool, compared with the Anglican.
The only thing that was disappointing, similar to yesterday, was to see the crowds outside in the ruins of the old Cathedral who didn't seem to make the way in to the new one.
After an interesting week-long cathedral-crawl, it's back to the shed for me now, with plenty to blog about. I expect I'll be back to my old ways by tomorrow, wandering down the canal and making the odd trip to Liverpool. One cathedral I haven't visited for a while is the Met - must put that right next week.
Now for some Bible. The inscription on the foundation stone at Coventry says this:
To the glory of GOD
this Foundation Stone was laid by
Queen Elizabeth the Second
on the 23rd day of March 1956
Other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid
which is JESUS CHRIST +
Psalm 127 and 2Corinthians 5:
1 Unless the Lord builds a house,
the work of the builders is wasted.
Unless the Lord protects a city,
guarding it with sentries will do no good.
1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Location:Coventry
Reading this I realised that it's close to forty years since I visited Coventry cathedral but I remember that it did make a huge impression on me. I loved the colour as well and yes it is similar to the Metropolitan - or rather the Met is similar to Coventry since Coventry came first.
ReplyDeleteI think that you have to work quite hard in most cathedrals to sense God's presence because the centuries of prayer are being overlaid by decades of commercialisation and people visiting for the building (interesting as they are)and not for for giving glory to God which was their original purpose. It is possible though if you sit long enough and let him seep through.
Glad you're both safely back.