Winchester Cathedral: A Personal Call




Slide 1:

People like to talk about “thin places” where we seem to see God a little easier. There are holy places like Mt. Zion in Scriptures, or even places in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem for our faith. These are places where encounters with God seem to occur the most or even just places that draw our minds towards God and all that He has done for us.

But we don’t often talk about thin places in our own journeys. Places where God spoke to us alone and not necessarily anyone else. Winchester is one of those places for me.

Slide 2:

I originally went to Winchester because of a pilgrimage. Specifically, we went to see the shrine of St. Swithhun, one of the early bishops of the Cathedral back in the 800s.

Slide 3:

One of the chef miracles St. Swithun performed was on this bridge. This is, by the way, the only picture that is not mine in this presentation. I believe it belongs to the Winchester Historical Society (It can be found at this link). Anyways, according to legend, a woman was carrying a basket of eggs when some workers on the bridge decided to be mean and knock her basket over. Bishop Swithun was walking across and helped the woman pick up her eggs. When he picked them up they were miraculously fixed and unbroken.

Slide 4:

My stole, which I was given for my ordination, marks this journey with the bridge and the egg, along with the Taizé cross from the later part of my pilgrimage to England and Taizé, France in 2003.

Slide 5:

But enough about that for now. Before I get into my story. I want to talk a little more about the history of Winchester Cathedral. I’ve learned more every time I’ve visited (this was my third time now), and learning more of the history makes me feel more and more connected with the church each time.

Slide 6:

The church is very old, from 642. In fact, here we can see the remains of the original church that stood here. Later, when William the Conqueror came to England, because this was an important city of the realm, he had a new church built here. My ancestors would have come over with William the Conqueror, so this is one way I feel connected to this church.
Slide 7:

One way we see the importance of this church is who was buried here. There are some kings, but also the clergy, like Bishop Henry de Blois here, were related directly to kings.

Slide 8:

Or folks like Bishop Fox who were in key positions in the government. So this continued to be an important church over time.

Slide 9:

One of the beautiful things about Winchester is that, while remembering the past, this is still a functioning church. They still say prayers on the hour. And we see the continuing to remember the past while still functioning in the present through juxtapositions like this one of the older font with the newer holder for the Pascal Candle. It’s a great reminder that we are joined together in the body of Christ throughout all ages.

Slide 10:

The font itself dates back to Henry de Blois’ time as bishop. It depicts scenes of St. Nicolas.

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But onwards into the church itself

Slide 12:

As you can see, not only is the church in use still, but it is undergoing renovation. This has been going on since 2014, three years ago and the last time I was here.

Slide 13:

This gives you a closer look at the altar frontal being currently used, as well as the rood screen in front of the choir.

Slide 14:

And here we see the lectern. I particularly liked seeing the pelican here. It’s a medieval symbol for Christ because pelicans were believed to give some of their flesh for the nest of their young. It’s also in the coat of arms for Corpus Christi in Cambridge where I was attached as a seminarian for a term.

Slide 15:

This is pulpit. The style is similar to one of the pulpits I saw in Cambridge where Thomas Cranmer preached. You’ll notice some words etched on the side of the wall here...

Slide 16:

…Which you’ll see throughout in different parts of the church.

Slide 17:

There are also many side chapels, as in most cathedrals from the Middle Ages.

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This includes the Lady Chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. More on this later though.

Slide 19:

We have the choir seating as well.

Slide 20:

With the main altar behind.

Slide 21:

And here you can see more clearly the renovation being done here.

Slide 22:

And here you can see what the altar looks like in Advent, as well as how long the renovation has been going on.

Slide 23:

The pulpit in the choir, I think, is much nicer.

Slide 24:

And while this isn’t a great picture, here is the cathedra, the bishop’s chair. To show that this is a cathedral, and one with some prestige.

Slide 25:

Winchester has a great history of learning, shown here with Headmaster Warton teaching Aristotle and Homer to the children. One of the ministers’, Lowth’s, sons discovered the idea of parallelism in Hebrew poetry. Even today, there are students connected to the church, including the son and recent graduate of a friend of mine. This is another way I feel connected to the church personally.

Slide 26:

The cathedral also has a strong connection to author Jane Austin.

Slide 27:

She is one of the last to actually be buried here in the church under a marker, which is at this spot in the cathedral.

Slide 28:

Her tombstone mentions her father, a priest, and her wonderfulness as a person but fails to talk about her accomplishments.

Slide 29:

Which has been rectified by the memorial plaque right next to her body.

Slide 30:

This being the 200 year anniversary of her death, the church has done a lot to commemorate her life recently, as seen with this artwork here.

Slide 31:

A quirk of the church is that it is right on a flood line.

Slide 32:

Which you can see in the crypts at certain parts of the year, such as in December.

Slide 33:

But back to the reason we’re talking about this great cathedral. Back in 2003, I made my pilgrimage to this spot, where Swithun’s shrine stands.

Slide 34:

I was with other youth of the Diocese of Alabama at the time, and right in front of the icons here, we did a reconciliation ceremony.

Slide 35:

Here’s a view of it before the restoration work to give you an idea of how I would have experienced it back in 2003 (minus the crèche). This would have been where pilgrims would have crawled to experience the shrine to Swithun. I went up to Bishop Andrus, now Bishop of California, then Bishop Suffragan of Alabama. I remember he asked me “what’s on your mind?” Before I could think, I replied “Am I to be a priest?” I hadn’t realized that I was struggling with this question at this point. I had a few people suggest that I should be a priest, but I hadn’t felt the call until that point, so I mostly left the idea alone. Bishop Andrus responded by saying we’d pray for guidance and he gave me a hug.

Slide 36:

I was pretty confused as this point, and crying, so I went to the chapel behind the shrine, the Lady Chapel.

Slide 37:

As you might be able to see here, the panels represent different miracles of Mary. These are restorations from the 1930s repainted from the original.

Slide 38-39:

And of course the stained glass above the panels.

Slide 40:

Keep in mind, stained glass in England is all more modern, thanks to Oliver Cromwell and the Cronies in the 1600s. I wish this picture was better, because it shows the front stained glass which is made up of all the broken pieces of the stained glass windows originally here, a unique arrangement to this church.

Slide 41:

But back to the Lady Chapel. Another thing to note is that in the 20th century, it was decided to make reparations for Joan of Arc’s death by commemorating her with this statue here, just outside the chapel.

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And nearby, we have this mobile, which states:

Slide 43:

“I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.” This quote from Joan is another connection point since I was very young at the time of my call. And I didn’t really know what was going on.

Slide 44:

This place inside the chapel was helpful with that. It was here at around this spot that I stopped and reflected on what had just happened with my call. And dried my tears. This was early on in our journey, the 4th day in fact. We would go on to the Taizé community in France a few days later. It was there I reflected more on what happened, I decided I was too young to think about ministry now, but that somehow made the sense that God was calling me to ministry get stronger. That year, I would do a week internship at my sending parish to get a better sense of the daily workings of the church, and I would do other things that slowly lead me…

Slide 45:


… to this point, being here with y’all as an ordained clergy. Again, this stole represents my journey, beginning with the journey to Swithun’s shrine and ending the first chapter of this journey reflecting in Taizé. I’m still moving forward in my own ministry, and I think it’s helpful as we all move forward to, from time to time reflect on our past. I still get a feeling every time I go back to Winchester, and I hope each of you have places or moments in your life where you felt God speak to you, perhaps in a way beyond your understanding at the time. Thank you for listening!

Bibliography:
Crook, John. Winchester Cathedral. Andover, Hampshire, U.K.: Pitkin Unichrone, 2001.