Westminster
This anonymous account of Benjamin Disraeli's disastrous
maiden speech in 1837 captures the theatre and the open democratic
debate that are the essence of Westminster. Even
today, visitors to the House of Commons witness ferocious
public cross questioning. The Westminster City,
unlike
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the secretive City
of London which operates behind the
closed doors of its grand facades,
lives its life in public, using some of London's
grandest buildings as a backdrop. Its three powerhouses Westminster
, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham
Palace are all central to that public life and reinforce
Westminster's position as the temporal and spiritual
headquarters of the sovereign, who is head of church and
state, and
of the Commonwealth, and of her government.
Westminster was founded on religion. On the boggy
banks of the Tyburn river, more than 2 miles (3 km) upstream from
the busy, walled City of London, the church of St Peter was
established in 604, possibly by Sebert, king of the East
Saxons. Subsequent kings and worthies endowed St Peter's. Edgar
gave land, Canute relics, then, around 960, St Dunstan, Bishop
of London, provided a dozen Benedictine monks to start a
monastery.
But the real creator of Westminster was Edward
the Confessor. Dreaming of a new palace, a monastery and
an abbey church fit for royal burial, his religious fervour was redoubled
when Pope Leo allowed him to restore Westminster's
monastery instead of making a pilgrimage to Rome. Edward began
his new Romanesque church, and in about 1060 left Wardrobe Palace
in the City for the Palace in Westminster.
From then on, rulers at Westminster and
merchants in the City would enjoy a distant but tense relationship.
The former constantly needed money for wars, crusades or extravagant
lifestyles; the latter could supply that money but would do so only
in return for power. Edward's abbey was consecrated on 28 December
1065. Eight days later he died, but his dream continued without him,
propelled by the need to fuse religion and state. When William
the Conqueror was crowned with great ritual in the abbey
on Christmas Day 1066, he began a tradition which was as much political
as spiritual. It was in that tradition that Elizabeth
II was crowned in 1953. Nine processions Of 250 people
escorted her to the abbey and during the four hour ceremony she sat
on three chairs and wore four sets of clothes. She was crowned with
St Edward's Crown, but left the abbey wearing the Imperial State Crown.
Successive kings lavished money on the abbey. Henry III
began by adding the Lady Chapel then, in 1245, employed Henry
de Reyns to start rebuilding it all in the new, soaring Gothic
style, with the intention of making it into a combination of shrine
to Edward the Confessor, grand coronation church
and royal necropolis. Richard II, Henry V,
Henry VII and donations from pilgrims to the shrine
further funded the abbey to near completion. Then, in 1532,
Henry VIII broke with Rome. The following year the King took
the wealthy Benedictine monastery as Crown property. Deprived of its
monks, the abbey became the shrine, coronation church and royal burial
site Henry III had dreamed of. The royal tombs and
the Confessor's Chapel lie at its heart,
amidst monuments to politicians, scientists, poets and philanthropists.
Until the late nineteenth century, burial rights at the abbey could
be bought, so not all those interred here are especially virtuous.
The crowd of grandly entombed sovereigns begins with Edward
the Confessor although one tomb may even be that of
the founder Sebert and ends with George II,
after whose death Windsor Castle became the royal family's preferred
place of burial.
For visitors today, the westminster cloisters are an evocative reminder
of its past. Outside the westminster great west door, more old monastic
buildings are occupied by Westminster School, whose
former pupils include Ben Jonson and Sir
Christopher Wren.
Extract from London, Louise Nicholson. London: A Hodder & Stoughton Book, 1998.
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but history is only a part of the abbey’s being. it
remains, as it always has been, a place of worship
and wonder at the heart of a hectic, materialistic
modern city. it is there to satisfy our spiritual
hunger for god, to refresh us and connect us with
the lasting things of the spirit which matter.
today this magnificent building has the same
power to speak to us and bring us together
as it ever had. our duty is to serve that purpose,
and to welcome worshippers, friends, pilgrims
and visitors from every corner of the world to
the joy, inspiration and peace to be found within
its walls.
shakespeare’s monument in poets’ corner
‘ he is the surest friend who does not change with
the seasons of fortune, but...is an ever-fixed mark,
that looks on tempests and is never shaken.’
in a typical year, the abbey holds over 1,500 daily shakespeare
worship and special services
westminster abbey is
the nation’s ‘coronation
church’. every king or
queen (save two) has been
crowned in the abbey
since 1066...
the coronation chair
7
welcome, wonder & worship: what the abbey must provide
as stewards of the abbey, we serve god, the sovereign,
our nation and millions of visitors, local, national
and international. that service involves an overriding
duty to care for the abbey itself: its fabric and
its contents.
welcome, wonder & worship:
what the abbey must provide
this duty of service has been performed through
centuries of profound social change. at the start of
a new millennium, we in turn must help to meet
the spiritual needs of today’s multicultural nation,
and make sure that the abbey will be able to
provide refreshment to our children and
grandchildren.
westminster abbey must remain a place of peace
and reflection, providing oxygen for the soul –
a “still point of the turning world” for those who
come into it from the busy streets of london. in
troubled and confusing times we need its power
more than ever to renew and inspire us.
this can happen in three intertwined ways:
welcome
welcoming friends, pilgrims and strangers has
been part of the christian mission here since
benedictine monks first invited outsiders into their
new abbey on thorney island. times change,
and with them the challenge of providing a warmhearted,
individual welcome.
today we serve a fast-changing multicultural
nation, part of a globalised culture. visitors come
from all religious backgrounds and none. set in the
heart of london, next to the seat of government,
we are proud ambassadors for our country,
welcoming people from every corner of the globe.
this means developing an education programme
for schoolchildren, high-quality visitor facilities to
equip them with the knowledge they need to enjoy
the abbey, and modern hospitality amenities. most
vital of all is the warmth of an individual human
welcome: kind, friendly and helpful.
to offer a professional welcome to over one million
visitors a year is a huge challenge for any cultural
destination. but we must meet it in a holy place,
created for prayer and worship. we succeed only if
visitors can leave us not just impressed, but refreshed
by the timeless peace and majesty of the abbey.
wonder
most visitors come to see one of europe’s greatest
cultural and historic destinations. the quality of
their experience must match that expectation.
we hope it can go much further. we want visitors to
share our sense of wonder and awe about the abbey.
by welcoming new generations, many from
non-christian and secular backgrounds,
to share the experience of the abbey;
by enabling millions of visitors to wonder at
its beauty, history and traditions in an
atmosphere of peace;
by inviting people to join in its worship,
which always has been and always will be
the heart of its life.
welcome, wonder and worship are inseparable
elements of the christian life, and everything
we do as servants of the abbey is to further
those purposes.
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