156 Manchester Cathedral – corporate-speak and a severed arm of Jesus

 A visit to Manchester cathedral (the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George) reveals a number of surprising  details. For example, a somewhat unchurchly tone was evident in the prominent reports displayed (“We shall deliver break-even budgets and year end returns annually” for the cathedral, and so on). So if you visit churches to avoid corporate-speak, you are out of luck. Or the modern sculpture of a severed arm of Jesus, complete with huge iron nail.

There are a lot of other signs of involvement with our present century and its zeitgeist and needs. A food bank, jigsaw puzzles, a poetry competition, and a celebration of diversity and inclusion, for instance. Also a somewhat kitsch display of 600 ceramic angel wings representing something or other.

There is more trad holy stuff too : quires and lecterns and tombs, fabulous 16^th century misericords, and a magnificent organ. Much of the cathedral structure is 16^th century, though most of the stained glass was replaced after the bombings of the Second World War – some of it in the 1990s and 2000s. In the 1970s, Manchester Cathedral was one of the first to open its choir to girls as well as boys.