I took my daughter-in-law to visit a cathedral, once.
She’d not traveled much
and grew up in non-denominational church settings.
When we entered the enormous church, she began to cry.
“I’ve never seen such a beautiful place to worship God before.”
Christ Church Cathedral visit
I thought of her during a visit to Oxford University’s Christ Church Cathedral.
I stepped into the ancient church as part of my tour of Christ Church College.
A docent greeted me at the door and to remind me I entered a church, not a tourist attraction.
I thanked her. “It’s wonderful to think Christians have worshipped God on this site for nearly 1500 years.”
She smiled and suggested I stay for the service.
The patron saint of Oxford, St. Frideswide founded the first church on that site circa 680.
(Or, nearly a thousand years before later Oxford graduates arrived in Virginia!
The college began circa 1200 as a monastery church.
Interior (author photo)
Who were those earlier builders and worshippers?
How did they build some a beautiful building? How did it survive through the ages?
Inside
I looked down the long row of choir stalls to the high altar and wondered where the “common” people sat.
It seems such a long stretch, so far from where the communion service takes place.
Music is always central to worship and the choir stalls house young boys in long robes, singing to the glory of God. 
The carved stalls themselves include details that must have taken a long time to make.
I paused to admire the angels. How many others did the same in the centuries since the cathedral’s founding?
What about the Cathedral stained glass?
Cathedrals usually have stained glass windows. Christ Church has several.
The Jonah Window created in 1630 by Abraham van Linge, stood just inside the nave. The colors looked modern to me.
Cathedral Jonah Window
Edward Burne-Jones made a more recent window, the St. Frideswide Window, in 1858.
See the dog?
Full of bright colors, it tells the story of the eighth century local saint and included touches of the whimsical: dogs.
On leashes no less!
Note “chain” leashes
Christ Church Cathedral’s architectural details
William Orchard designed the vault above the chancel (location of the choir stalls) circa 1500.
It’s made of stone carved into a star-shaped pattern to create an image of heaven.
Note star-like vaulting
Gravestones dot the floor, monuments to former students line the walls.
A sarcophagus gave me pause, as they so often do.
On it a stone woman lay across the top of the carved stone, her hands neatly folded.
Note missing head
While she died in 1354, when Oliver Cromwell’s men came through the cathedral 300 years later, they beheaded her child’s figure.
Music and Christianity
I sat in the cathedral, listening to the music, thinking about this structure as a place of worship.
Years ago, I’d asked a docent in New Zealand’s Christchurch Cathedral, about the parishioner’s life.
“It’s not lived here in the cathedral,” she explained. “Real Christian community takes place outside of this large building.”
Several of the cathedrals I visited on this trip posted large signs explaining what Christianity is, who Jesus is, and what baptism means.
I’m thankful they didn’t leave the building alone to explain God to tourists.
Cathedrals are magnificent and reflective of people’s devotion to God–in this case for more than a millennium.
The expense and beauty were designed to make people think of how grand and awesome God is.
In a community struggling to survive, a magnificent structure gave them a place to feel proud. Their days revolved around church life.
Oxford’s founders set up their colleges to study religion. The cathedral was the center.
The reality of a church body is a body–a warm, living being.
Other Christians point you to God.
The church building merely reflects how people honor and revere God.
I enjoy walking through cathedrals and feeling historical unity with all those who have gone before.
The organs sound beautiful. The art work is glorious. I’ve heard excellent sermons preached.
But, when it’s time to worship my Creator, I’d rather do it in my smaller, plainer church back home.
Stained glass windows and all.
Tweetables
Where would you rather worship God? In a large empty beautiful cathedral, or in a smaller, plain church filled with enthusiastic believers? Click to Tweet
Worshipping God for 1000 years in the same spot Click to Tweet
Do dog stained glass windows belong in a cathedral? Click to Tweet
Thanks for the tour! This is probably a place I’ll never see, for various reasons. But I sure understand your daughter’s response. Though it’s not a cathedral, the first time I walked into our church, I cried.
The cathedral reminded me of the reverence we should have that sometimes we forget with our causal churches. It was a visual reminder of God’s majesty.