English Cathedrals Research Articles

Cathedral Growth: How the Rest of the Church of England Can Join In: Away from Polarization and Towards a New Mixed Ecology for Growth

Abstract In light of current debates and historical precedent, this article rejects polarized approaches to growth in the Church of England. Instead, it points towards the significant numerical growth experienced by English cathedrals as evidence for the fruits of a mixed practice approach. Analysing the growth experienced by cathedrals in recent years, it is posed that, combined with rootedness in place and local identity, a mixed practice approach could be a model for a well-functioning mixed ecology, and a growing Church.

Image and text: to the question of textual sources of typological parallelism in the Iconography of Western European Art of the XII century.

One of the iconographic trends that became especially articulated in the XII century is the strengthening of the role of typological logic in the selection and organization of subjects within the iconographic program of monuments of decorative and applied art, book illumination and stained glass. Interest in this kind of visual exegesis, based on the symbolic parallelism of the Old and New Testaments, generates experiments in the field of iconographic programs, which leads to the appearance in the late XII – early XIII centuries a number of monuments in which detailed typological cycles are used (the Klosterneuburg altar, typological stained glass windows of French and English cathedrals). The subject of the research in this article is the connection of the described iconographic trend with texts of a theological, theosophical and liturgical nature. Despite the fact that some of the mentioned texts have already been involved by researchers of Christian iconography for the interpretation of pictorial programs, a special study of the sources of "typological iconography" in the XII century has not been implemented yet. Based on the analysis of a number of texts and iconographic analysis of fine art monuments, an attempt is made to identify a group of sources that could be familiar to the compilers of iconographic programs. Among the monuments of fine art, works created in the Rheno-mosan region (as well as derivatives of this tradition) are of particular interest in the XII century. In this group of works of art (including processional and altar crosses, phylacteries, portable altars, works of stained glass and book illumination), searches in the field of typological iconography are consistently realized.

"A Very English Superstar": John Rutter, Popular Classical Music, and Transnational Conservatism since the 1970s

Abstract: Since the 1980s it has largely gone unnoticed how the British composer, conductor, and music entrepreneur John Rutter has become a leading figure in popular music—successful on the global music market, popular in the English-speaking world, and regularly at the top of the classical music charts with his Christmas song compositions. Rutter embodies precisely the opposite of commercial pop culture: he is the antitype of a pop star, he succeeds with sacred music, he addresses the middle class and the bourgeoisie, and he personifies family values, community spirit, and the preservation of tradition. Using the example of Rutter, the author demonstrates the importance of conservative pop cultures for the emergence and development of a transnational conservatism in Europe and North America since the 1970s. The article reveals the interplay between nationalization and transnationalization in conservatism, and points out the variety of forms and contexts in which conservative dispositions can appear in popular musical cultures. They offer opportunities for politicization, but can also remain effective purely in the cultural sphere. Rutter's sound worlds clearly transcend English cathedrals and college chapels.

New light on the 17th-century English cathedral wind band: a (fragmentary) Canterbury tale

Abstract Despite the long-acknowledged and widespread association of wind instrumentalists with English cathedrals in the late 16th and 17th centuries, and the continued performance tradition enjoyed by sacred vocal music of the period, the performance practices of English cathedral wind bands during this time have been strangely neglected in the existing literature. Drawing on a combination of traditional musicological and archival research and bespoke practice-led research methodologies, this article discusses some possible solutions to the question of how wind instrumentalists may have been employed in the day-to-day enactment of Prayer Book services during a turbulent period of English history. New archival evidence surrounding the life of William Mather, cornettist at Canterbury Cathedral in the years before the suspension of sung worship in 1642, sheds new light on the interplay between civic and ecclesiastical music-making in the city, contributing to our knowledge of the historical and social contexts of the people and practices involved, and offering a tantalizing glimpse into life in the 17th-century gig economy.

From the Camino de Santiago to English Cathedrals

In this article I analyse my experiences of conducting fieldwork in four English cathedrals: Canterbury, Durham, Westminster and York. The focus will be on various challenges related to carrying out fieldwork in sacred spaces. I will also reflect on my role as a researcher and pilgrim/visitor and compare it with my previous experience of researching the Santiago pilgrimage. I explore the following: similarities and differences between conducting fieldwork on the Camino and in cathedrals; and how what I have learned in the Camino context is (or is not) transferable to the Cathedrals context. I will also reflect on how some of the practicalities of conducting fieldwork—such as the location of our workspace in the cathedral—can lead to wider understanding of several topics, for instance, what defines a sacred space, and how different sources of information interact methodologically.

Multi-Hinge Failure Mechanisms of Masonry Arches Subject to Self-Weight as Derived from Minimum Thickness Analysis

ABSTRACT The present study investigates the relation between the optimal geometry (quantified via the minimum thickness) and the number of concurrent hinges at the masonry arch’s limit state. The Heymanian assumptions regarding material behavior are adopted, and only constant thickness arches subject to static (i.e., self-weight) loading are considered. First, the only numerically verified completeness of the failure mode types (including 6 and even 7 hinges) of gothic arches is analytically proven. Next, it is investigated whether a higher number of hinges can concurrently occur for arbitrary, symmetric concave arches. A numerical procedure is presented which generates suitable arch geometries corresponding to a k-hinge mechanism, where k is an arbitrary odd integer not smaller than 5. For the generated class of arches, a higher number of concurrent hinges leads to lower minimum thickness values. However, it is explicitly proven that a higher number of hinges is not necessary for lower minimum thickness values. A small database about the geometry of the transversal arches of English and French medieval gothic cathedrals concludes the first part to allow comparison with the derived results. In the second part of the paper, existing literature results on the limit state analysis of gothic arches are extended by the effect of stereotomy on the failure mode type and minimum thickness value.

Rome in Ripon: St Wilfrid's Inspiration and Legacy

AbstractRipon cathedral is unique among English cathedrals in having a seventh century crypt – the unaltered survival of the crypt built by St Wilfrid. Its original purpose has been much discussed, but what is not in doubt is that its inspiration came from Wilfrid's first journey to Rome where, as Stephen of Ripon tells us, he spent some months ‘visiting the saints’. This article will begin by re‐examining the political circumstances under which Wilfrid established his Roman foundation in Ripon since this, as will be shown, set up an agenda‐driven context which played into Wilfrid's own ecclesiastical aims. It will then re‐examine the evidence for his bringing of Rome to Ripon, paying particular attention to the precision of Stephen's language in the Vita Wilfridi which, it will be argued, can yield more information than previously recognised about the nature of Wilfrid's inspiration and the comprehensive scope of the statement he set out to make. The article will conclude with an overview of how the continuing presence of the crypt, as a place of pilgrimage and spiritual reflection, has shaped the multi‐faceted architectural legacy that is the cathedral we know today.

The patterns of music subscription in English, Welsh and Irish cathedrals during the Georgian era

Abstract The quality of the music produced at Britain’s cathedrals during the 18th century has generally been accepted to have been poor, and there has been much written on the reluctance of deans and chapters to invest financially in the choirs. However, an analysis of the music purchased by such groups through subscription paints a very different picture, with some deans and chapters investing heavily in the acquisition of new music for their choir’s use. Ultimately, an analysis of the subscription lists attached to the collections of sacred music does not paint the full picture in regards to the state of sacred music at this time, but it nevertheless indicates that a more nuanced approach is necessary, with several cathedrals, particularly Durham, maintaining significant levels of investment for much of the 18th century.

Anglican Cathedrals in a Secular Society: David Martin and the Sociology of English Religion

One of the puzzles in our secular age is the resurgence in attendance at English Cathedrals. Whilst it is commonplace for sociologists and media - and sometimes church leaders - to draw attention to burgeoning membership in evangelical and charismatic churches, the Cathedrals of the Church of England represent a different kind of growth. A considerable number of attendees come to cathedral worship and significant commemorative events (e.g., Christmas, Remembrance) because the very particular ecclesial ecology of a cathedral does not normally require membership, intense fellowship or frequency in attendance. Cathedrals, therefore, are now more prominent exponents of 'low-threshold-high-reward' patterns of worship, and point to a form of ecclesial polity that was once much more common in English Anglicanism. Namely, the church serving its community as a support-based institution rather than as a member-based organisation. The sensibility of cathedral worship may now chime more deeply with those latent patterns of spirituality that remain textured and strong within the weave contemporary culture, embodying spiritual-spatial inclusion. To understand the resilience of cathedrals, and their relative growth in attendees, requires developed ecologies of English church-going that comprehend the value of the church continuing to hold its vocation as the social skin of a city, region and the nation, and a patterning of polity that continually renews the values underpinning civic society.

On praying in an old country: ritual, replication, heritage, and powers of adjacency in English cathedrals

ABSTRACTThis article explores the double identities of English Cathedrals as places of religious engagement but also as locations of heritage. Rather than seeing such functions as only or inherently opposed to each other, with liturgy compromised by tourism, or religious seriousness by crass commerciality, it explores the ways in which religious practice, tourism and heritage display exist in adjacent, often mutually productive forms. Such adjacencies may lead to particular contexts and activities of modified mimesis and replication between religious and heritage behaviours, which I label ‘merging,’ ‘modes of address,’ and ‘enactment.’ Overall, my analysis assesses the influence not only of the market, but also of management culture, on cathedral governance in the contemporary era.

Replication or rivalry? The ‘Becketization’ of pilgrimage in English Cathedrals

ABSTRACTIn 1170 the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in his own Cathedral sent shockwaves through Europe, yet few could have foreseen the spectacular expansion of his cult throughout Christendom in the following decade. While many of the individual structural and performative aspects of his hagiolatry were hardly new, the ‘Becket model’ was to shape the nature of cult within and beyond English cathedrals for the remainder of the Middle Ages. Following the initial burst of pilgrim activity, the monks of Canterbury carefully curated the shape of, and access to, the cult within the Cathedral in order to confirm their role as sole custodians and to promote their political influence. This article provides new readings of the use of sacred space in the cathedrals of Canterbury, Durham, and York, and foregrounds the significance of Becket’s cult in understandings of both medieval and modern constructions of the English pilgrimage experience.

From the liminal to the lateral: urban religion in English cathedrals

ABSTRACTUsing data derived from a qualitative and quantitative study of four English cathedrals (Canterbury, Durham, Westminster, and York), I argue that these buildings combine high cultural capital with considerable liturgical flexibility, and that the latter has helped cathedrals become highly popular parts of the church and heritage landscape. In examining the ritual forms made available to visitors, including regular services, informal acts of piety such as the lighting of candles, and varieties of pilgrimage, I argue the need for a more nuanced theoretical vocabulary than is currently in play in order to describe the ways in which informants engage with liturgy. Drawing on both ritual theory and urban sociology, I juxtapose a more conventional depiction of ritual as involving entry into set-apart and liminal frames of action with the observation that many visitors engage in more ‘lateral’ forms of participation, where sacred and secular, official and non-official, blend in complex ways. Such ‘laterality’ emerges not only from contemporary responses to ritual engagement, but also out of characteristic ways in which urban publics engage with variegated city space. My broader argument is that the notion of ritual ‘laterality’ is a highly productive means of characterizing encounters between contemporary visitors and heritage sites of religious significance. Use of this category avoids a clear separation or hierarchy of value between sacred and profane realms of action, or between religious believers and tourists. An investigation of lateral interactions between visitors and such sites also assumes that informal, ambiguously articulated, and less public behaviors may be as sociologically significant as formal and easily visible ones. I conclude that ritual behavior in cathedrals points to wider trends in the encounters between diverse urban publics and ostensibly sacred spaces.

Fallen idols, broken noses: Defacement and memory after the Reformation

The Henrician and Edwardian Reformations of the 1530s and 1540s were marked by successive waves of iconoclasm in English churches and cathedrals. Statues, screens, wall paintings, and windows were among the idols targeted. While some objects and artworks were destroyed or effaced entirely, others remained in situ, bearing the marks of iconoclastic violence. Even today, many English cathedrals harbour numerous examples of defaced images which have suffered beheading or scoring of the face and hands, but have been neither repaired nor removed. This article explores how various post-Reformation observers including Protestants, Catholics, antiquaries, and poets understood and responded to defaced images, arguing that traditionalists and reformers found a paradoxical common cause in the curation of iconoclasm.

What of Effervescence?

In this article I explore the continued salience of Durkheimian effervescence through an examination of ritual activities contained within contemporary English cathedrals. My argument focuses less on collective occasions of creative or destructive tumult and more on ritualised forms of action where modalities of engagement and participation are nuanced, reflexively negotiated and small-scale. My aim is to render more subtle – and potentially productive – our understandings of gradations in ritual intensity.

English Cathedrals: events and spiritual capital

This paper investigates the recent trend for cathedrals in England to develop a wider and more ambitious scope to their event and activity programmes. It sets out to explore the types of events now hosted at cathedrals, to consider barriers to such ambitions and the opportunities presented by event programming to develop new audiences and grow attendances. The research focuses on the 42 Anglican cathedrals of England and has involved a review of recent reports published by church and cathedral organisations, supported by an in-depth review of event activity and objectives at five selected cathedrals in southern England. Despite declining general church attendance in England, cathedrals have enjoyed two decades of attendance growth both as places of worship and as tourist attractions, partly a reflection of a more complex contemporary search for multi-faceted types of spirituality. The paper explores how events can tap into the realm of individual spiritual capital and demonstrates the rich diversity of events now being hosted by cathedrals. The paper offers a new categorisation of ecclesiastical/liturgical events, cultural and community events and openly commercial event activity. Barriers remain but key facilitating factors have been new investment in event expertise and professionalism, encouragement to experiment by key funding bodies such as the Heritage Lottery Fund and the embracing of new forms of spirituality. The diversity of cathedral events reflects a new found growth in the nurturing of “spiritual capital” amongst both worshippers and tourists.

Associational social capital and psychological type: an empirical enquiry among cathedral Friends in England

A sample of 1131 members of the Friends associations of six English cathedrals (616 women and 515 men) completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales (FPTS) and a modified version of the Williams Religious Social Capital Index (WRSCI). The data demonstrated that higher levels of religious social capital were found among extraverts (compared with introverts), sensing types (compared with intuitive types), and feeling types (compared with thinking types). No significant differences were found between judging types and perceiving types. The finding that extraverts displayed higher levels of religious social capital poses a challenge for the cathedrals, given that introverts outnumbered extraverts by nearly 2:1 in the Friends groups. Since religious social networks are known to influence generosity with time and money, it is suggested that cathedrals not only develop strategies to recruit more extravert Friends but also devise novel ways of encouraging introvert types to participate in associational activities where social capital will be generated.

Truro Cathedral: Spires of hope on the Duchy peninsula

A case-study is offered of a modern English cathedral set in a predominantly rural and less prosperous region of Britain. The author seeks to highlight the distinctiveness of this particular cathedral ministry as well as experiences in common with many other English cathedrals from the perspective of a participant observer. The unique social and religious inheritance in the Duchy of Cornwall leads to a diverse mix of local cultures strongly influenced by Celtic traditions that serve to emphasize its independence from its English neighbours. Truro Cathedral’s role as a community utility beyond the Church of England in giving voice to the role of the established church in this region is explored. This discussion refers to the challenges of responding to implicit and explicit expressions of contemporary religion. Generational differences, in particular, focus the cathedral’s attention on offering a generous hospitality to individual spiritual and religious exploration while maintaining its core values and purpose that have come to be summarized as ‘Sacred Space, Common Ground’. The growing diversity of ministry of this English cathedral at the heart of regional life is an encouragement to the continuing life of the Church of England in this extremity of the South West.

Created to be guardians? Psychological type profiles of members of cathedral Friends associations in England

A sample of 1356 members of the Friends associations of six English cathedrals (775 women and 581 men) completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. Compared with psychological type profiles published for the Church of England laity, both male and female Friends showed greater preferences for introversion over extraversion, for sensing over intuition, and for judging over perceiving. Female Friends showed less preference for feeling over thinking than other female Anglican churchgoers or women in the general population. Overall, the most frequent psychological profile was the Epimethean (SJ) temperament, which was significantly more frequent than among Anglicans generally in the Church of England. This is a profile expected from people who have a strong desire to maintain tradition and heritage and who have been called “guardians” of the church.

Conservation compendium. Part 6: Concrete repairs to English cathedrals – what are the consequences?

This paper sets the scene by looking briefly at the failure of some historical repair methods in English cathedrals. It then reviews the repairs that have been carried out on a number of cathedrals in the 20th century, using concrete as a major constituent. Finally, based on our current knowledge of concrete and its reinforcement, the paper assesses the future of these repairs.

Durham House and the Chapels Royal: their liturgical impact on the Church of Scotland

AbstractEver since the laying of the foundation stone of the present Norman building, Durham Cathedral has had an ambiguous relationship with Scotland – some good (the huge contribution of Dean William Whittingham through liturgy, metrical psalms and the Geneva Bible) and some extremely negative (the cathedral served as the prison for the Scottish prisoners after the battle of Dunbar). Amongst the more negative are the liturgical ideals and practices of the Durham House group, more commonly though inaccurately known as ‘Laudians’. The members of the group, which did include William Laud, were the protégés of the bishop of Durham, Richard Neile, and they met in his house in London. He promoted many as prebendaries at Durham Cathedral, and there they developed their liturgical ideals and practices. These ideals were ones which Neile shared with his contemporaries and close friends, Bishops Lancelot Andrewes and John Buckeridge. This article argues that the origin and precedent for these practices were the Chapels Royal with which most of the ‘players’ had affiliation in some way or other. Elizabeth I insisted on liturgical ceremonial and furnishings that supported or matched the grandeur of court ceremonial. It was a style which she hoped would also be adopted in English cathedrals. It was a style of worship which also appealed to James VI and through the Chapels Royal in Scotland he attempted to introduce a similar liturgical style. He also sought to conform the Church of Scotland to the Church of England, both in polity and liturgical text. The policy was continued by Charles I, who attempted to extend it to the Scottish cathedrals. Opponents of this court liturgical style and ‘Englishing’ of the liturgy found it convenient to blame the bishops who were given the task of implementing the liturgical changes rather than attack the source, namely the monarchy. The ultimate outcome was that, rather than the Church of Scotland adopting the 1637 Book of Common Prayer and Durham House ceremonial, it eventually even lost the liturgy which Scottish tradition had ascribed to John Knox, but the lion's share of which was more probably the work of Dean William Whittingham. Instead the Church of Scotland accepted the Directory of Public Worship, itself mainly the work of English divines. It became one of the few Reformed churches that did not have a set form for its public worship.