Catholic and Loving it!

Hull Faith Forum Autumn Programme is here:

Talks are at 7.30pm at the Endsleigh Centre in Hull.

Today is the feast of the guardian angel. Joanna Bogle tells us to make angel whispers... these are cup cakes.

I made angel cakes - the one where you cut off the top and add a dash of butter cream and put the top back like angel wings, I hope she has changed it in her new book. I gave some to James to take to work, he said "what if they think I am trying to force my beliefs on them?"... with cake? really James! (I think he wanted them all for himself!)

It is a nice opportunity to think of our guardian angel and how they manage to keep us out of harms way, and if your thinking 'oh but this and that' well just think... that is AFTER your angel has sorted a few problems out!

Grey man ponders theology...

Berenike of Laodicea fame is buying a house in Poland.

I just hope she doesn't buy this one.

Fantastical in style, but many of these are quite accurate really.

A concept blog I like very much indeed.

Faces in Places is a concept blog I like very much indeed.

I especially like the grate one, the sink, the lightbulb and the Chinese Stereotype. However, I think my favourite is the sly roof.

"Just what I feared, he's formed a gang!" Is this short a lesson in environmentalism or a warning about the greater danger of delinquency in kids from single parent households?

Either way, the Catechism tells us that "The dominion granted by the Creator over the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be separated from respect for moral obligations, including those toward generations to come." It doesn't specifically mention managing resources in order to avoid the roving gangs of vicious killer raindrops, but I'm sure it's covered in there in principal.

This, and much much more at... The B-Movie Catechism!

An anonymous donor (we're guessing Mark and Monica but there's no name) has sent us a CD of Chant by Cantores Missae called 'Martyrs - A Mass for Ss. John Fisher and Thomas More'.

Many thanks, it's great.

Today I had loooooads of fun at senior choir. The altos sounded quite good really but I think it was more due to the fact that there were more of us than any other group (usually you can't hear our delicate tones) and the soprano part was harder, well Carol said that it went very high but Kevin (The Man) said that it didn't. I would say what would he know but his crazy choral feats allow him to sing all the parts!! I am looking forward to the christmas concert.

Today we took Leona to Hull fair, she was... interested. We bought her a helium balloon of Tigger (which is in fact bigger than her) and she looooooooves it. In the evening stage two of the "trying to dry my bridesmaid bouquet challenge" took place, would it work? Yes it did, though my flower arranging skills are slighly less effective with dry brittle flowers but I think I did an ok job and now I have a lovely momento from Susan and Waynes wedding!

It's no secret that Ella and I like to get around and see the sights of England... our recent days out to Richmond, Durham, Whitby and the Abbeys of North Yorkshire etc are well documented. Here's our dirty secret: The nearby city of York however has somehow escaped our reach... until now.

A recent blog entry on a visit to Exeter Cathedral attracted the attention of Kathleen Lundquist, a blogger on the Intentional Disciples blog alongside Mark Shea and also a Musician. She was soon to visit England and was after tips so I sent a few emails, checked with some friends and knocked together a Tips for Visiting England blog entry.

Today was the day that Kathleen and husband Gary descended on York. Ella and I decided to go along and try to help them find the sights (although, as I say, our knowledge of York is limited). Thanks to our marvellous railway system the Lundquists couldn't get to York until 1ish so by the time they found their B&B and met us outside York Minster it was 2pm. Well, 2.15pm actually... we were late. We also brought Michelle and her daughter Jessica along for the ride. Jessica knows more history than we do (she's a history nerd) and Michelle knows more about Margaret Clitherow than we do (she's a saints nerd) so they should come in handy.

2.15pm... did I mention Kathleen and Gary had a train out booked at 9am the next morning. Our car parking was only paid up until 6pm. This was their one shot four hour chance at seeing as much of York as possible. How do you see York in four hours??

Well to start with, you don't see anything on an empty stomach. Kathleen and Gary hadn't eaten since their marathon train journey (it's two hours by car, they had to catch three trains). We wandered away from the minster back to a market square type area where there were proper English Morris Men and Garland Dancers (handy that, because there isn't usually such things) to watch while munching on a sandwich. Ella told us all about the Morris Men (because she's a Morris Nerd).

Time a'tickin we decided to prioritise. Kathleen and Garry's main requests were the Shambles and the Minster so we began with The Shambles on the basis that the shrine of Margaret Clitherow might close earlier than the minster. There in the Shambles we hit upon a controversy... where did Margret Clitherow live?

Was it at Number 10? - Wikipedia seems to think so, as does a plaque (laminated paper) in the entrance of the building which unconfidently states "claimed to be the home of Margaret Clitherow". I found a page on yahoo that says the shopkeeper at Number 10 will tell the tale of her being "crushed to death in the cellar". We know she didn't meet her end in the cellar at home so perhaps the Number 10 claim originated with an excitable shop keeper. However I also found an InfoBritain page which claims Number 10 to be the only house in the Shambles with a priest hole. If that is true, it would lend weight to the claim for Number 10.

Was it at Number 36? - The Roman Catholic Shrine of Margaret Clitherow occupies Number 36, the rather more official looking wooden plaque (none of your laminated tat here) announces that this was "The house of Margaret Clitherow". However, my cynical mind has questions... I can't help but think that if this were the house of Margaret Clitherow there would be a priest hole and if there were a priest hole it would be a feature. Maybe I am wrong, maybe there is a priest hole but it's too awkwardly placed to share with visitors.

Personally, the version of events I find most believable is this... I expect nobody can know for sure which house was the one Margaret Clitherow lived in - if there are records then they might have renumbered the houses. The good people of the Catholic Women's League who bought the house for the Shrine knew this and were happy just to have a house in the Shambles. Then I am guessing some well meaning but mistaken parishioner assumed it was her actual house and had the wooden sign made (maybe they made it themselve) which continues to mislead people (perhaps if there is no supporting evidence it should be removed). The other house, number 10, by virtue of the priest hole (if one exists) has a better claim and their sign with it's "probably" is more realistic. Besides, everybody knows real saints advertise themselves via cheap laminated tat. I wouldn't be surprised however to find that number 10 is/was not the only house with a priest hole. If Margaret Clitherow was as popular locally as the story suggests then I wouldn't be surprised to find her friends helping her to hide priests. In any case, the question wants sorting because it's not really fair on pilgrims to be potentially mislead by either location. If we don't know then the sign should say so.

We prayed briefly in the shrine and then headed back out through the shambles towards the minster.

As an aside... the Shambles is the name given to many streets of butchers throughout England. Named, so they say, after the shelves hung outside to display meat. Unrefrigerated meat displayed uncovered outside? It's a wonder anybody lived long enough to be martyred...

So, the Minster...

Oops no. You get one more aside before the minster itself. Not a lot of people know this but the Roman Emperor Constantine (yes that Constantine) was in York with his father (Constantius) died. The troops proclaimed Constantine the Emperor then and there though he actually had to go through a bit of messing around to make it official. Next to the minster you can see a statue of Constantine (Ella and Michelle said it looked like Fr. Massie) and an authentic Roman column direct from the great hall of the Roman garrison where Constantine was proclaimed Emperor.

So, now, the Minster...

York Minster is famous as the largest gothic cathedral in the world. It's a shame I didn't know this when we arrived of I might have said so. Not that you need to know that kind of thing - who cares if it's the largest. It's large and you can see that for yourself when you are there. We entered by the south door which is a bit odd when you are used to entering by the west door. Gary headed down to the crypt/undercroft and we took Kathryn around to the west end.

We always do Cathedrals from west to east (liturgically - sometimes the west end isn't actually in the west). There's a sense in which the Cathedral describes a journey often with the Baptismal font at the west and the high altar in the east. York Minster doesn't have the font in the west end (in fact I don't recall seeing a font at all) but we began there all the same in the Nave. York minster has the widest nave in the world (I am told) and is slightly odd in that there is a lot of glass very high up. This gives quite a strange lightness in the ceiling but it's not so light down below.

The nave is filled with modern chairs. Here's the thing... seats and pews in Churches is quite a modern invention. So find me a traditionalist who want's everybody to sit on the floor... Anyway, there's a few unexplained things in the nave. There's a dragon sticking out high up for no apparent reason and there's a fairly new looking chair (throne?). The former they say is possibly part of a medieval mechanism for lifting a font cover (the font is long gone) while the latter I am guessing might be for when the Bishop of York want's to sit where people can see him. There's also a chapel to St. Cuthbert (yay) with an image of Cuthbert's vision of Christ in glory in which Our Lord seems to be surrounded by modern soldiers and laser beams (what the?).

We made our way to the front of the nave, the pulpit is curious in that it is really quite small and light looking - perched as it is on slender wooden columns. Quite a change from the monolithic marble affairs we grew accustomed to in italy.

Next up, the North Transept (the transepts are the two arms of the Cathedral). There's a beautiful astronomical clock here in honour of airmen operating from Yorkshire in the second world war, here we find the entrance to the Chapter House. The Chapter House is a bizarre structure really, so much size and splendour for what is essentially a meeting room. It is, I confess, a stunning room and yet I cannot help but think... why bother?

We came out of the chapter house and were about to admire the screen when an man in that curious attire formerly reserved for black gospel choirs but recently seen adorning the guides in our nations Cathedrals asked us to step back. We watched as a large group of well behaved silent choristers filed past two by two in to the choir. Evensong began and we listened to their singing as we admired the screen. Unlike many Cathedrals the screen at York Minster is of stone construction with a row of impressive statues.

We couldn't see the second half of the Cathedral - it was closed off for evensong. We would have to wait. Kathleen and Gary had only limited time in York and as beautiful as the singing was, we didn't want to spend an hour stood there listening. We decided to head out of the Minster and return later. Where to go?

We decided to go and check out St. Wilfrid's, the main Catholic Church in York (after all, it was the feast of St. Wilfrid on Friday). I was immensely upset about what I saw inside and I will not spoil this otherwise upbeat blog entry by writing about it here. It is an embarrassment to English Catholicism and our Diocese that our American friends had to find things as they were.

On the plus side for St. Wilfrid's, it was open. There's huuuge respect from me for that. So many Churches are locked these days. Good work.

We left the scene and walked to Bootham Bar explaining to Kathleen that the 'gates' are streets and the 'bars' are gates. We climbed Bootham Bar (pram and all - we ain't no wimps) to find at the top an excellent anachronistic electronic quiz thing where you virtually race around the walls of the city by answering questions about the history of local sites. It was great. We walked the stretch of wall from Bootham Bar to Monk Bar which is the stretch that runs around the Minster. It's bizarre because you are have the large gardens of the houses surrounding the minster on one side and the small gardens of houses outside the city walls on he other side. The wall snakes it's way past the Robin Hood tower (how do you even begin to explain to Americans that Robin Hood was a Yorkshireman (maybe). We came down from the wall at Monk Bar.

After that we walked back from Monk Bar to the minster for part two. The eastern end of the minster is the best bit, it's where you find the choir, the Bishops throne and the high altar. Sadly there was a fire in the minster in the mid 1800's which destroyed all the choir stalls so most of the wooden furnishings (which are of particular interest to myself) are a bit bland. The victorians didn't have the same inclination toward creativity in design that the medievals did. Still, the lady chapel and the east window are spectacular... now thats a reredos.

They also have quite a good collection of gaudy elizabethan tombs...

After the minster Kathleen hinted that perhaps 6pm was time to look for food. We wandered the streets of York until we found a Pizza Hut where we got... um... pizza. While everybody ordered I had to run down to the car park and buy more parking time because we were only paid up until 6pm. We had good eats (lost of people liking spicy meaty pizza) and after food was over it was nearly time to head our separate ways.

Rather than risk Kathleen and Gary getting lost in York we decided to take them for a walk down to Cliffords Tower (so they had seen everything) and then drive them back around to their hotel. This we did and as I dropped them off Kathleen gave me one of her CDs. This one is better than the samples I heard on the site - still kind of high pitched for my liking but with a hint of gregorian style and all about Christmas. Ella really likes it.

We had a great time and I hope Kathleen and Gary did too. We learned lot's about York that we never knew and I look forward to next time we go again.

(and yes, we did somehow totally forget to do a group photo, Ella is livid with me...)

There is a meeting for all those interested in helping to plan the Youth Sunday celebrations on Thursday 1st November at 7pm at St Vincents Social Club.

I assume it is for all who are interested in helping, if in doubt e-mail us.

This Saturday I had sooooooooo much fun at archery. I was a little nervous at first but they were all quite friendly and I was soon chatting to a few people. I had never met Patrick so I did not know what he looked like but I was soon pointed in the right direction. I felt alot more comfortable here than at my other group as not only was I not in the minority shooting a recurve bow but I was also not the only girl AND there was a wide variety of ages as well. I shot a few times but Patrick soon lost interest in me, though I was classified as a traniee I think he realised that I was not about to shoot anyone, which is always nice :o)

I am learning a new hand release for shooting bare bow and it feels much more comforable. Some of the Lads there had really nice long bows and once I had got back into the swing of it I hope to notch up the poundage and get myself one in the end. I am really looking forward to my next session though I am missing out this week as Mark Shea is coming.