Church Visit - St Edward King and Martyr

Last week a few of us visited the Cambridge church where Hugh Latimer held the pulpit - and sometimes shared it with Cranmer. The attendant there was even good enough to allow us to step up and get the feel of it for a moment.

One thing that was interesting was the attendant's strong Protestant beliefs. Despite the fact that I had heard that this church now sat some way away from the convictions of the Reformation, the attendant was actually grieving even the fact that the stained glass had been replaced in the 1800s as it shifted the focus from the preaching of the Bible and onto the ornamentation of the building. He wanted nothing but the unmodified gospel to be communicated in this building.

May Latimer's brave legacy long continue here.

Church Visit - Ely Cathedral

One of the things that the English reformers were famous for was iconoclasm - destroying the 'superstitious' symbols of ritualised worship as part of their efforts to refocus the church on the gospel as it's revealed in the written words of Scripture. One participant in this tear-it-down movement was Thomas Goodrich, Bishop of Ely from 1534 and right through Edward VI's reign.

Goodrich was responsible for gutting the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary that sits to the north of the main structure of Ely Cathedral. This was a relatively unsurprising move, given that 'Mary worship' was part of the old Roman Catholic religion that the Reformation Protestants most definitely wanted to expunge. But today it makes for a stark contrast to enter the Chapel and find something reminiscent of a disused church hall with nothing but plain glass all the way around after having just stepped out of the unbelievably ornate Cathedral proper with its countless ornaments, carvings and intricate stained glass windows.

But then, similarly incongruous within this bare chapel, there is a lone statue of the BVM standing proud against the wall, looking down on the room with arms held up high - praising God? receiving praise? I didn't find out for sure, but it must be that this was returned to the Chapel during a period of restoration (one of which was as recent as the year 2000). Whenever it was put there, it's pretty certain that it wouldn't have sat well with the plans that Goodrich had for Christian worship during Edward's time. Leaving nothing but Mary to focus on would have cut strongly against the grain.

That said, however, Goodrich did manage to find a comfortable place under Mary Tudor, who returned the Church of England back to Rome. And he did leave the rest of the Cathedral intact. I don't really know all that much about him, but think it would be interesting to learn more of Goodrich's views on gathered worship and how they changed over time.

From a theological perspective, I can plainly see the point in getting rid of the images. But also, coming at the Cathedral culturally, artistically and architecturally, I have to say that I appreciate a lot of what was left. It captures a lot of history that the Chapel doesn't and, frankly, it's pretty stunning to look at. I guess the question is how to preserve the buildings and their heritage without risking any confusion about how God mediates his grace to us.