Leicester Cathedral

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We set off early and arrived in time for a welcome coffee in the café in the Guildhall part of the Cathedral precinct. Here there was also toilets. The Cathedral is building an extension as part of its remodelling consequent upon the remains of Richard III being buried there.

 

 

 

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There are no public toilets or café in the Cathedral currently. The square, originally the site of a hospital, also, hosts a Christian Resource centre; landscaped garden and metal sculptures. The four-story extension being erected in the square behind the Cathedral will complete the £18 million remodelling. It will include a volunteer space; toilets; lift; visitor centre and community meeting space and kitchen facilities. The better part of the funding came from Heritage funding and two generous local benefactors.

We set off after refreshment through the city centre following the Pilgrim route of 1.8 miles to the local Abbey park. The dogs and we enjoyed the green space and the leg stretch. Dogs are welcome in the Cathedral and at services.

The lovely medieval arched wooden entrance and porch to the Cathedral opens onto a perfectly flat new stone floor with underfloor heating. The Cathedral was a thirteenth century church to which a Victorian extension was added. The patron saint is St. Martin who is the patron of,inter alia, butchers and comedians. We received a warm welcome on our return to the Cathedral in time for the lunchtime Eucharist and healing service. The prayers included one for the Jeel Scholarship Fund. We met with Canon Emma, Canon Precentor who led the service and listened afterwards to our exposition on the Jeel Scholarship Fund. She told us that she had met Canon Micheal from Ripon and that the network of Canon Precentors would be meeting in Durham the following week. The Chapter is all female including the Dean. The Cathedral boasts of being the first to have a girls choir. The symbol of the Cathedral and Diocese is the welcoming Christ with open arms – to be adorned with a ruff in the future. Canon Emma told us that the extension was taking longer than planned due to exigencies – twas ever thus? It was thought that some bodies would be found when excavating behind the Cathedral – four hundred. It was actually over twelve hundred and the richness of the past stories this is revealing will be known and told in the future.

Les the Head Verger for twenty-five years gave us a coffee with some regulars from the congregation in a makeshift seating area. He told us that the culture of the Cathedral is multifaith. This is expressed in many ways but one is to put on the midmorning Sunday Eucharist service sheet the opening words of the Our Father prayer in over twenty languages. He pointed out the ceiling with red – for Christ’s blood and green – for everlasting life rafters. Also, angels gilded and renewed in 1986. The Cathedral has a St George chapel with symbols of the Indian tiger adopted by the Leicester regiment and rugby club. The fox of the Leicester football team and the boar of King Richard lll.

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The centre piece is the tomb of King Richard simple and striking. It is made of fossilised Yorkshire limestone and has a deep cross embedded in it – for Richard’s deep faith and broken body. It is mounted on Kenny granite and is decorated with a small stunning mosaic of his coat of arms in glorious colours.

In the adjacent St Katherine ‘s chapel are a series of modern windows by Tom Denny depicting King Richard’s life.

There is a very small shop with cards and some mementoes. The Cathedral has peregrines in the tower. It has been awarded the ARocha Silver EcoChurch Award which will be displayed in the new building when open.