Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria, BC

After our bus tour of Victoria, we walked back to Christ Church Cathedral to see its interior. ( I love it when churches keep their doors open during the week so people can enter for respite or prayer!  Sadly, most are locked up for security reasons.)

The church was begun in 1849 by the Hudson Bay Company when Victoria had a population of 200.  This cathedral is the third building, built over an extended period of fund raising, church squabbles, and weather-related issues.  It was designed in 1891 by a Victoria architect imitating England’s Durham Cathedral but in 1923 funds were sufficient to begin construction which continued until 1929 with improvements added subsequently.  Visitors have included Sir Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and Prince Charles and Camilla.

 

 

I enjoyed looking at The Book of Common Prayer with which I am not familiar, and I found this phrase amusing: “to such as are of riper years”.  I can see much use for this in the days to come as I send birthday cards to my friends of riper years!

I particularly liked that in the cathedral the Stations of the Cross were depicted by different artists. One is below, not particularly my favorite, but thought provoking.  I like to see the individual, human interpretation of religious events expressed uniquely by each artist.

As we were leaving the church I saw this simple little table set with a white cloth basking in the sunlight and stained glass.  To me it speaks of the simplicity of our faith, the beautiful simplicity of faith at the core of man’s attempt to glorify God as represented by the cathedral.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church_Cathedral_(Victoria,_British_Columbia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Lord_(Victoria,_British_Columbia)