Random thoughts and photos of my journey through life…
It is my turn at Vision & Verb today. My post is about a project launched by the Imperial War Museum (IWM). It is a digital memorial to record the life of every person who served in uniform or worked on the home front during World War One. An ancestor of mine is listed on the site so I will be taking a small part in the project. I invite you to join me there.
6 Comments CherryPie on Jul 8th 2014
Altar of St Margaret of Scotland:
(c.1045-1093). Descendant of Alfred King of Wessex and ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II Canonised 1250.
Wife of King Malcolm III of Scotland. The 17th century frontal is thought to be Spanish but may be Italian, and shows scenes from the life of St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582).
It is one of the treasures of the Cathedral.
This altar serves as a focus of prayer for the Mothers’ union of the Diocese.*
Altar of St Laurence:
Martyred 258, traditionally by roasting on a grid-iron.
The mensa (altar top) is one of the two oldest altar stones in the Cathedral.*
*Information taken from the sign boards situated in the Cathedral.
2 Comments CherryPie on Jul 7th 2014
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust (1871-1922)
10 Comments CherryPie on Jul 6th 2014
Filed under Faith Foundations, Heritage, Holidays, Salisbury 2014
The Salisbury ‘choir boys’ traditionally undergo a quaint initiation ceremony.
Chorister initiation – “bumping”
now be said about the rather quaint initiation ceremony for newly made choristers after Evensong on the day that they receive their surplices.
The new chorister is seated on the stone shelf in the south choir aisle with the Bishop’s Chorister and the Vestry Monitor standing each side of him with their hands on his head. They proceed to, fairly gently, bump his head against the stone wall behind him seven times saying:
“We bump you a chorister of Salisbury Cathedral according to ancient custom”.
There is quite an indentation in the stone worn away over the ages!
Salisbury Cathedral lays claim to being the first English Cathedral to found a girls choir.
The year 1991 was a great one for the cathedral’s music when Richard Seal, organist of many years’ standing embarked upon a completely new venture, recruiting, founding and training a girl’s choir, 18 strong aged between eight and 11 years at the time of recruitment. It was the first English cathedral girls’ choir and has gone from strength to strength and when in the cathedral is completely independent of the boys’ choir.
On our visit to the Cathedral we were informed that the girls didn’t undergo the same initiation ceremony as the boys… They merely got whacked on the head with a prayer book!
8 Comments CherryPie on Jul 5th 2014
The High Altar is the very heart of the Cathedral. This is the table where Holy Communion is celebrated. The embroidered frontal changes during the year to reflect the season in the church.
The window behind the High Altar is entitled Prisoners of Conscience and is situated in the Trinity Chapel. It was designed by the French artist Gabriel Loire and installed in 1980.
The centre lancet shows the Crucifixion with gold above signifying Truth, a triangle of light from Jesus’s head shines on the graves of prisoners. The ascending spiral expresses the theme of Resurrection.
On the left, at the foot of the cross, a sorrowing figure of the Mother of Jesus. Centre left lancet shows (in second panel down on left hand side) the head of Jesus from the the back as he stands before Pilate, (in the second panel down on the right hand side) Pilate in judgment and boy holding bowl for him to wash his hands disclaiming responsibility and (in the third panel down on the right hand side) a cock crows three times when St Peter denied Our Lord and the face of St Peter weeping in remorse.
The centre right lancet shows Jesus in a red robe with his head crowned with thorns, blood running down his forehead, being mocked by soldiers. The far left lancet shows the firm faces of convinced prisoners. Far right lancet shows the doubting faces, arrows of doubt, with anchor of hope at the top left and the green star of vision at the top right.
Even close up I found the detail a little unclear.
2 Comments CherryPie on Jul 4th 2014
Filed under Art, Faith Foundations, Holidays, Salisbury 2014
This artwork of terracotta figures by Nicholas Pope is currently situated in the Trinity Chapel at Salisbury Cathedral.
The Apostles Speaking in Tongues Lit by Their Own Lamps is a dramatic re-enactment of events narrated in the New Testament. On the Jewish feast of the Pentacost, the Holy Spirit was said to have come upon the Apostles in Jerusalem enabling them to speak in tongues to all those present. The Holy Spirit descends amidst a ‘rushing mighty wind’ and appears in the form of ‘cloven tongues of fire’. Nicholas Pope’s Apostles are likewise the bearers of fire. Made in brick clay of earth-colours, each figure supports a primitive oil-lamp backed by a halo of beaten metal. The lamps provide a pulsating glow which is reflected from the polished metal.
Just like individuals who make up the average Anglican community – the clergy, the parish council, the parishioners – the twelve apostles came from ordinary walks of life, from agriculture, teaching, the world of commerce. Like members of the congregation, some were good and trusting souls, others turned out to be less wholesome. Pope doesn’t take a neutral view of the twelve. His figures are breathtaking and imposing but at the same time they include aspects of the hideous and the comical. Each figure is identified by his attributes: Doubting Thomas sports trunk-like bloodsucking appendages; Mathew, a tax-collector, carries a heavy paunch while the two-faced Judas has fleshy protruding lips.*
Acts 2:1-6:
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak his own language.
*From a Salisbury Cathedral leaflet on the exhibition
14 Comments CherryPie on Jul 3rd 2014
Filed under Art, Faith Foundations, Holidays, Salisbury 2014
I found the Salisbury Font fascinating and breathtaking:
The Salisbury font was designed by the renowned British water sculptor William Pye. It was installed in September 2008 and dedicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury during the celebration of the 750th anniversary of the consecration of the Cathedral.
Cruciform in shape, the font has a 3-metre span to allow total immersion baptism. It is a green patinated bronze vessel with a Purbeck Freestone plinth and brown patinated bronze grating. Water is the predominant feature, and here two contrasting aspects of water are woven seamlessly together. There is stillness expressed in the smooth surface which reflects and extends the surrounding architecture, while the flow and movement of water passing through spouts at each of the four corners and disappearing through a bronze grating set into the floor expresses its essential life giving properties.
10 Comments CherryPie on Jul 2nd 2014
