York Minster

I spent what turned out to be a good few hours visiting York Minster.

Having been brought up in Liverpool with our two 'new comers' in the world of Cathedrals, it is hard to imagine that the present Minster took over two hundred years to complete. Generations of stone masons and labourers worked on this magnificatnt building without any hope that they would ever see the finshed product.

Although a massive tourist destination, it manages to retain a peaceful and prayerful atmosphere inside, during my visit we were called to pause for reflection and led in prayer for peace and the sick. It is a vibrant worshiping community. The windows tell the story of the community and their desire to share the story of God's promise with all who worshiped there.






The first thing I was drawn to on entering the Minster was the giant cross draped in white cloth - a real foucs for the celebration of the resurrection of Easter. Apparently during Advent a very large Advent wreath hangs in the same space.





I'd always wondered why it was called a Minster - the name comes from it being a church built to minister to a new community rather than a church build on the site of a monastry or existing site.












I was impressed by this simple and effective Easter garden found in the Cathedral. the sun was shining right on to it giving the open tomb a very mysterious appearance, deliberate or not the path from the cross to the open tomb is very symboic of our own journey through Holy Week.
Although the Easter garden has no tradition for devitions as the Crib does at Christmas, many of the visitors stopped by the garden, perhaps pausing for prayer and reflection or just being taken in by the beauty and the message of the scene. Perhaps many of ideas may appear in a Church in Woolton come Easter 2010!

York

I spent the weekend in the wonderful city of York. It's an amazinly historic city, with buildings of all ages and even part of the wall built when the city was founded by the Romans.

I thought I'd share some of the sights with you on here. The Minster stands high above the city, there are apparently local planning laws in place to ensure that no highrise buildings are built so the Minster will always be the highest building seen for miles around.

The city centre is mainly surrounded by the city walls, and entry into the city is through gate wasys confusingly called bars! To add somemore confusion many of the streets are called gates - apparently the gate part coming from a Viking word for street. Walking round you can drink in the history, the ancient walls, the cobbled streets and churches that are around everycorner.

There are a whole host of Ghost tours and walks taking you to the 'haunted' sites of York and retelling storys of the strange and mysterious happenings that have filled York's history. I went on one such tour, starting at the West doors of the Minster and guided by an excellent story teller. The tour took us through arches and small side streets to hear the strange stories of York, finishing in the world famous Shambles- the old butchers street of York where once this tightly packed street was filled with the blood of slaughtered animals and the bits that were thrown away....

This is an interesting Church just on the outskirts of the city walls, St Cuthburts, the small door on the side if the church is given the title of 'the devil's door' and was apparently opened during baptism services to let the devil out. I'm glad that we've moved on from the days of this!

There are many churches dotted about, many with lantern towers that before the days of street lights would guide the inhabitants of York home.