Patrick Comerford
During my visit to Walsingham last week, when I was invited to speak at the Ecumenical Pilgrimage, I visited about a dozen churches and chapels in Walsingham, including two visits to Saint Mary and All Saints’ Church, the Church of England parish church in the small Norfolk village, the Shrine Church, where much of our worship took place during those days, and the Holy House.
The Anglican Shrine in Walsingham has other chapels and altars, including the Chantry Chapel of Saint Michael and the Holy Souls and the Barn Chapel, and the Garden Altar or ‘The Altar of the Mysteries of Light’ which creates an open-air chapel in the gardens.
The Garden Altar or ‘The Altar of the Mysteries of Light’ was erected in 2005 on an upper lawn of the garden to replace the original ‘Halifax Altar’. It replaced the original Halifax Altar and a pavilion designed in 1933 for Lord Halifax for a single Anglo-Catholic Congress High Mass. The Halifax Altar was critically unsafe when a digger came in touch with it at the time of the 2004 garden renovation, it collapsed into a sorry heap and it was demolished.
Charles Lindley Wood (1839-1934), 2nd Viscount Halifax, was a founding Lay Guardian of the shrine in 1931. But he was the only Guardian never to visit Walsingham, and he never signed the Guardians’ Roll. Nevertheless, he was allocated a stall in the Shrine Church, the Saint Edward stall on north side of chancel. A prominent Anglican ecumenist, he was twice President of the English Church Union (1868-1919, 1927-1934).
In 1933, Lord Halifax had an altar pavilion built for a single Anglo-Catholic Congress High Mass at Hickleton, his family seat near Doncaster. It was designed by Sir William Milner, an architect and the chief benefactor of the Shrine. Afterwards Lord Halifax presented the altar to the Shrine as an outside altar.
Milner often pointed out that he had designed the altar for use on the one day only. It had fallen severely into disrepair by 1960 and it was given a major refurbishment that year.
The altar was so far beyond repair in 2004 that it was replaced by the present Altar of The Mysteries of Light in 2005.
The altar was designed by the Cambridge architects Cowper Griffith Associates, whose work includes Wesley College on Jesus Lane, Cambridge, housing for Winchester College, visitor facilities at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, and Stowe Gardens in Buckinghamshire.
The Altar of the Mysteries of Light takes its name from five additional Mysteries of the Rosary established by Pope John Paul II: Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan, the Wedding at Cana, the Proclamation of the Kingdom of God, the Transfiguration and the Institution of the Eucharist.
The new altar was designed to represent ‘Pilgrimage’ through its tent-like structure, reminiscent of the biblical tent for the Ark of the Covenant and the fishing boats of the disciples, and this tented shape suggests onward travel. It features a dressed stone podium with in-built evening lighting. Four timber masts support a fabric roof, and it includes a timber screen constructed with boat-building techniques.
The altar’s Latin inscription, Lumen Gentium (‘Light of the Nations’), also recalls the title of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from the Second Vatican Council.
Today, the altar is the focal point for large open-air worship services and Mass, particularly during the large pilgrimages that can attract up to 10,000 people.
No comments:
Post a Comment