Monday, March 07, 2011

Fleury and Winchester


Saturday saw the opening of the first extension to Winchester Cathedral in 500 years: a utility room called the Fleury building on the North Transept. It is so called in recognition of the Benedictine link between the Cathedral and L'Abbaye de St-Benoit-sur-Loire, St Benedict's Abbey of Fleury. The Abbot of Fleury opened the building and he was then installed as the first Honorary Ecumenical Canon of the Cathedral.
Abbot Etienne pointed out that St Oswald had been sent over from England to be a monk at Fleury before going on to be made Bishop of Worcester in 961 and then Archbishop of York 972-992. He said he was honoured to continue Oswald's effort to ensure close spiritual ties between the Abbey and the Cathedral.

5 Comments:

Blogger Angus said...

A utility room ? Hope the architecture is sensitive. Shall clearly need to visit The Trusty Servant for pictures.

10:33 am  
Blogger Ellee Seymour said...

I'm sure it will be a well used room, like the utility room in my house.

9:01 pm  
Blogger Whispering Walls said...

The architecture's sympathetic, Angus, with stone from Somerset.

It will be used for flower arranging and to house the new boiler which is much "greener" than the boiler of the Wessex Hotel which they used to rely on.

8:54 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

will there be a bondage room extension next or a louis vuitton room you think to spice it up even more... a utility room is so 80's

6:49 am  
Blogger Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Love Ellee's comment! And Anon's too.

9:09 pm  

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