Hopeful, heartwarming day at Westminster Abbey
‘Greater in honour than the cherubim, and glorious incomparably more than the seraphim; thou who inviolate didst bring forth God the Word, and art indeed the Mother of God: thee do we magnify’ John Tavener’s setting of the Orthodox antiphon interpolated into the Anglican Magnificat covered the Catholic rite of censing the coronation altar by the Dean at solemn Evensong concluding a memorable day of devotion in Westminster Abbey. Before that altar on the Cosmati pavement where monarchs are crowned stood the statue of Our Lady Queen and Mother carried from England’s Nazareth at Walsingham. The gentle tone of Tavener’s chant setting an unarguable statement about Mary captured the spirit of an ecumenical day of devotion in which the Walsingham Shrines collaborated with Westminster Abbey hosting a day of celebration in Mary’s month of May. As Priest Associate of the Holy House at Walsingham I’m committed with 2000 other clergy and hundreds of thousands of laity ‘to further, with