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York Minster from the city wall near Monk Bar - Photo taken 4th October 2012
This cathedral church, the seat of the Archbishop of York, is the largest Gothic Cathedral in northern Europe. It dominates the city centre and is here clearly seen from the ancient city walls.
Like all mediaeval cathedrals, York Minster was constructed to reflect the glory of the Most High. In its day it would have been completely awe-inspiring to the ordinary working people, a building seemingly as far beyond their humble wattle and daub dwellings as heaven is from earth. (More photos of the Minster.)
Although we are not affected by the architecture in quite that way, we can still appreciate the enormous sacrifice of expenditure, care, hard work and exquisite craftsmanship involved in creating the Minster. It does, indeed, represent a form of worship, though not the worship 'in spirit and in truth' (John 4:23-24) that we are required to bring. It's an external work of praise, men and women doing their best for the Almighty, great but not our ultimate calling. What he really seeks is an internal work of praise, hearts that love him intimately and will follow him wherever he leads.
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It is an impressive building but I wonder what the cost of all these building are. This one costs £7.2m ($11.5m) per year to run we have about 50,000 churches in UK (I think most considerably less expensive). Are the tourism/other benefits from maintaining the buildings supporting or crushing?
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to know more about the economics of all this, but York Minster is a real architectural gem and needs to be maintained at almost any cost. It's truly a national treasure.
ReplyDeleteBut what do you think of putting up a building as a form of worship? I suspect that's how some of the craftsmen felt, probably the architects too. Can a work of art glorify the Most High? If so, in what way?