@WalkerMarcus@vicarkaren@SouthwMinster Excellent point.
Also do we know if it has been “badly managed” as the original poster claims or are massive, ancient, cathedrals just plain expensive to keep open safely?
@vicarkaren@SouthwMinster Have they “overspent” or is there simply not enough money to maintain such an expensive building.
It’s not possible to spend “£0”
Cowbridge Church ⛪️
C. 13th century, probably soon after the borough’s 1254 charter. Its magnificent tower survives unchanged. The south aisle, added in 1473, was reputedly built by Lady Anne Neville, wife of the future Richard III, who granted the church a chaplaincy in 1484.
@hitesh_punja@FrGeorgeReeves Let’s pray you’re right. It might not be conventional for you but it definitely is for the families who are being bombed sadly.
How real is the religious revival among young people that we keep reading about?
This evening, I went to Choral Evensong at my old Oxford college, Oriel. In my day, it was rare to get into double figures at a chapel service (not counting the choir). Today, there were 138 worshippers. Yes, there was an adult baptism, but there have apparently been over 110 people at every service this term.
What’s the secret? The unadulterated Prayer Book is part of it; indeed, the traditionalism more widely. This evening, for example, the choir sang Parry’s I was Glad. And the place itself is beautiful, of course.
But my sense is that the style of churchmanship is secondary. What really draws people in is the unapologetic gospel. High or Low matters less than the sense that there is something bigger, and that people are unembarrassed to talk about it. Oriel’s chaplain, Robert Wainwright, is a wonderful example of what a clever, humble and energetic clergyman can achieve.
Afterwards, as always, there was a formal hall. No phones are allowed at Oriel formals, and it was joyful to see undergraduates properly talking over dinner. The meal began with a sung grace. The grace itself is more than 500 years old, but the singing was an undergraduate innovation dating only from last year.
There are oases to be found in the desert. Oriel is one of them.
Preaching at Evensong on Remembrance Sunday at St John’s College, Cambridge. Very grateful to the chaplain, the Rev’d Graham Dunn, for the kind invitation to preach in so glorious a space.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.
Et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion,
Et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem
Exaudi orationem meam
Ad te omnis caro veniet.