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 16th
century misericords, and a magnificent organ. Much of the cathedral structure
is 16th 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.
