Small and beautiful
Carlisle Cathedral is ... not big. I don't mean any disrespect; Leicester Cathedral (in my own diocese) is pretty compact by cathedral standards too, and I'm very fond of it. Likewise, here at Carlisle the small footprint contains much to love. The choir takes up most of the cathedral's interior, so had been imaginatively arranged to include the entire congregation within it, being held by the choir stalls in a kind of woody embrace. They've also turned the area around the font (which would be a entire huge nave in many cathedrals) into a very beautiful chapel / prayer space. The altar is magnificent - see the photo. Now that kind of lavishness (or gaudiness) may not be to your taste, although I rather liked it. But it reminded me of something my Old Testament tutor, Philip Jensen, talked about during my training days. He said that in all architecture we have a tendency to put the things we most value in the centre and at an elevated height. The Holy of Ho...