CATHEDRAL CRAWL

in aid of St Helen's
Church Roof Repair Fund

Derek Brown, one of our parishioners and a Lay Eucharistic Minister at St Helen’s, intends to visit every cathedral in mainland England during 2008 and hopes to attend a service in each one.

This is part pilgrimage and part simply the fulfilment of a long held ambition of his. There are 42 cathedrals in total so this will take some time.

Derek is seeking sponsors with the intention of raising money towards the large amount needed to repair the church roof. (Information about the urgent and necessary roof repairs may be found by clicking here)
English Heritage have generously offered us grant aid but the amount the parish will have to find could be in excess of £170,000,

Derek has now completed his Cathedral Crawl and managed, between 1st April and 6th October, to visit all of the 42 Cathedrals in mainland England.

DID YOU KNOW?

The second bishop of Carlisle, Bernard of Ragusa, was a Croatian refugee who, until he was expelled from his homeland, had been Archbishop of Dubrovnik.

The Early English west front of Wells Cathedral has the largest display of medieval sculpture in Europe

Until 12th century the clergy in the secular cathedrals were almost always married whilst the monks in the monastic cathdrals were celibate. This allowed the monks to look with disgust at the secular clergy as if they were ritually impure. Adopting celibacy anong all the clergy allowed the secular clergy to claim to be as good as the monastic clergy. Thus celibacy came into general usage for political as much as religious reasons.