Printer Friendly
Email to FriendCanterbury Cathedral welcomes Lambeth visitors while planning for future pilgrims
"So many people come here because of its historical roots, and over the years a rich history of this community has encouraged Christianity throughout the world," says the Very Rev. Robert Willis, cathedral dean.
The mother church of the Anglican Communion and indeed of English-speaking Christianity, Canterbury Cathedral's story began in 597 AD when St. Augustine reintroduced Christianity to this region of southeast England. (A Christian church had been located here when Britain was controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410).
While proud of the cathedral's heritage, Willis says, he also knows it's essential to preserve the building and its foundation for generations to come.
"Canterbury is still a place where pilgrims love to come, and pilgrimage right across the world is on the increase, so we see more and more official pilgrims who want to be blessed as they set off or congratulated on their arrival," says Willis, who came to Canterbury in 2001 after serving as dean of Hereford Cathedral. "That as a focus for the cathedral's ministry is a good one because cathedrals are places where people come and worship and then take the welcome they get away with them to enrich the lives of their own communities."
Supportive community
The community that serves Canterbury Cathedral plays a vital role in continuing the worshipping traditions and welcoming the more than 1 million visitors each year. Those who work to keep the cathedral running on a day-to-day basis include clergy, vergers, stone masons, carpenters, stewards and many more.
The cathedral is more than just a beautiful old building, its website boasts. "It is a place of worship, a place to meet, a sanctuary, a haven, a celebration, a place of joy and occasionally sadness, but most of all it is alive with the people that make the cathedral what it is today."
In mid-July, Canterbury Cathedral will host several hundred pilgrims representing 164 countries around the world as the bishops of the Anglican Communion travel to the "garden of England" -- as the southeastern county of Kent is affectionately known -- to attend the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference.
The bishops, Willis says, will not visit Canterbury as guests. Rather, he says, "they come here as those who possess this mother church as their own as surely as I do."
"They're also joining a community which is already here, which has been historically for 1,400 years saying its prayers and celebrating the sacraments daily," he adds. "So they will be part of that extended community while they're here, as the Anglican Communion is part of that extended community right across the world."
Preservation needs
But for Canterbury Cathedral to be preserved for generations to come, it must raise 50 million pounds (US$100 million) to finance an extensive conservation and development program.
"Always in a heritage site like this, you're going to find the day-to-day income, which normally pays the bills, is not going to be enough for massive projects, and from time to time in its history -- about every 30 years -- Canterbury has had to raise money for a major project," Willis says. After the Second World War, when substantial bombing had taken place, there was a major restoration appeal, followed by another in the early 1970s, he notes.
The current appeal is required to replace the long lead roof, which has stretched over the years, fund stone and glass refurbishment, and secure the choral foundation and ministry to children and adults in education "and to pilgrims who come and want to learn something while they're here and receive a good welcome from the facilities that are here," says Willis.
"A place where people have prayed in the millions over the years and is still held precious, which is the home to a creative community set there to carry on both the tradition of prayer and daily life, becomes something so wholesome within this world that one wants to hand it on for the benefit of humankind," Willis says. "At the same time, that community throughout the years has been really creative in works of stone, art and music, even day by day with floral decorations or things which the children create when they're drawing here. That kind of creative community is awe-inspiring when someone comes in and sees what the past has created, but it's awe-inspiring in a way which stirs the people who are coming to be creative in their own way."
» Respond to this article
2007
Search
Browse by Topic: 2008
