Two churches that shocked me!

 

Two churches that shocked me!

          All tourists would gain certain unforgettable eyesight during their visits. Sometimes that sight may make her/him thoughtful for several days. Though she/he tries to overlook it, the thoughts may haunt intermittently with its intensity. This note is the one of its kind that describes two different scenes during my life in the UK in the month, May 2025.

          1. First scene is inside the Durham Cathedral! Before I describe the shocking scene, shall I say about this particular town where the Cathedral has been situated? If you walk from the car parking area, it would take twenty minutes to reach the Cathedral, atop the hilly town. Major share of the road leading to the hill is not macadam-paved. Chipped hard stones were fixed throughout the narrow road. This is a part of Durham city. “How hard this stone-paved road is, leading to the Cathedral! Why the old constructions are stronger than modern constructions?” Looking at the road and the buildings on both sides, I found the answer by myself. “This street and all nearby buildings were of at least 800 years. The builders of that time had a common thought behind all the constructions that the buildings should survive centuries. Seeing the strength and massiveness of each construction, I was extremely happy to walk forward. ‘Let the coming generations should appreciate the builders of these roads and buildings.’ was my leading thought at the moment.

          Before entering into the main portion of the Cathedral, on the left side there appeared the main building of the Durham University. As a major renovation work was going on there, the facade of the main building was covered with a massive canvass, we couldn’t see the entrance. What I could understand was that, the university is like a satellite of the Cathedral. The University and the Cathedral have much importance in the history of the town. ‘But, which is more noticeable, the University or Cathedral?’ The official name of the Cathedral is somewhat lengthy; Cathedral Church of Christ Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham. After it was established in C. 635, there were intermittent constructions or demolitions up to the year1541 to renovate or rebuild the cathedral.

          The admittance of the visitors into the Cathedral is on the support of the nominal donation they pay at the counter inside. The volunteers, who are bound to assist the visitors, give all relevant stories and explanations. Actually, this Cathedral is a complex of houses for prayer and a monastery. Crossing the quadrangle the visitors first enter into the main portion of the church, facing the main altar. If they take a side way, the visitors reach the right-side hall. This portion of the building was once a priory, where hundreds of monks lived in. Otherwise, it was a cloister, where the monks lived a humble and solitary life in prayers.

Taking a round of these places, we reached the corner of another hall where there was an altar. There I couldn’t believe my eyes! “Is it a true one? Or, is it anything wrong with my vision in the dim day-light?” With the thought I came very close to the idol, which had been erected at the most important position of the altar. ‘Yes, this is a saint whose head had been ‘slaughtered’ using a very sharp weapon.’ Within no time, I confirmed that someone had cut out the head intentionally to derogate that particular practice of worshipping saints in a catholic church! Because this Cathedral was a catholic church, which later went under the control of the Church of England.

After spending at least two hours within the Cathedral and the premises, where the movie Harry Potter had been filmed, we climbed down the hill through the same stone-paved narrow road. Behind me Niya and Akhil were saying to me and to my wife about the international fame of the Cathedral: “…this location is the most selective place to show-case the magical world depicted in that film.” I couldn’t respond to Niya and Akhil properly, as my mind was turbulent of the sight of the statue of the saint, whose head had been ‘butchered brutally’ within the last two or three centuries.

“Who did this heinous thing in a Cathedral?  To all those who revere the saints, this is a disgrace! What was the dispute behind the ‘execution’? Who were daring to deface it if they knew the steps of canonization process at Vatican, through which one becomes a saint in the Catholic Church?” I asked some more questions to me, for which answers were very easy from my previous knowledge in the history of Europe and the UK.

During the protestant revolutions in Europe, especially in the UK, the positions and importance of saints were questioned and thereafter the statues couldn’t withstand the protest of reformers. The heads of the statues had been cut out during the time of disputes and disagreements among the believers. Open fights might have happened in the church, in front of the ‘sanctum sanctorum’.

On reaching home that day itself, I tried to Google the history of Durham Cathedral, which gave me some other shocking guess about the cutting of the heads of saints in the Cathedral. Wikipedia says that this Cathedral had been used in the sixteenth century by the government to house 3000 Scottish prisoners of a war, out of 1700 died in this temporary jail. “Did the dis-satisfied prisoners do any mischiefs to the statues of saints?” This was the next inference I took to the problem, why ‘slaughtering of saints’ within the Cathedral? After all, Durham Cathedral keeps at present three relics of the saints -- Cuthbert, Bede and Oswald for the public to worship.

2. Another shocking event happened in the same week itself. That day our journey in Akhil’s Jaguar car was to conquer the Highland in Scotland. That journey was just like a pilgrimage, during which we would take relief somewhere in small towns or townships. One spot that is still greenish in my mind is a waterfall, nearby a pretty old bridge that seemed like a balcony projecting into the rivulet. ‘How clean the rubbles and rocks are under the bridge! Though the quantity is small, water rattles under the pavement where we stood.’ We walked into the puddle on rocks of the stream to dip our arms in the crystal clear water. “This is Birkkim falls. This is just like Athirappilly – Vazhachal falls in India.” Niya, my daughter has quick comments to connect her earlier experiences with the current ones.

 

On reaching Callender, as usual we searched for a car parking space on payment. Taking coffee from a small tavern, we purchased two food packets from the adjacent shop. What was that food? Oh! It was a fresh and hot beef item which was watering the mouths. “It’s peppery…” Niya laughed softly. We opened the packets and placed the spoon into it to take out the chops one-by-one. Holding the packets Niya told “Shall we walk forward to find a place to sit somewhere and to enjoy the hot beef? Next to the shops there is a church.” Her suggestion was simply workable. We walked up to the façade of Whittingehame Parish Church, where there were two or three pews, so that we could sit comfortably in that dry and cold summer mid-day. 

 

The church has a sky-rising pinnacle, under which there were main arch and side arches for the people to enter. But all the outer doors and windows were closed tightly. Though an age plus old Gothic construction, from the first sight itself I could sense something irregular or abnormal with that environment. ‘The front yard and side yards are not clean. Dry leaves lay here and there. The lush green meadow around the building has been unattended.’ With these observations in mind my eyes surveyed the locale to read a notice “This church is on sale. Contact No….”

 

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Is there any error with my reading comprehension? There I was reading the same notice for another five times, to get the same perception from it, ‘That church is on sale, buyer/s may contact on that phone.’ After enjoying the food we left the church yard, to the next township.

 

That night our stay was in a static caravan in a remote area in Scotland. Staying in a static caravan was the rarest thing in my life, though Akhil and Niya had earlier experiences of same kind. After dinner we got enough time to chatter within the lounge of the static caravan. Though Akhil, Niya and my wife were talking enthusiastically about the horses, farms and farm-houses my mind pegged around the notice ‘church on sale’.

 

I understood that the notice ‘church on sale’ has shocked me much. “Why am I disturbed with the words - church on sale?” The answer was simple.

I am a practicing Christian with my humble belief in Catholicism, where church-going is inevitable, at least on Sundays. Attending the services on Sundays and other important days is preplanned in everybody’s life. Moreover, church is a meeting place of the local community, around which they live. The church is like a pivot of social life and interaction among people. That much importance is there with every church. But, here in Callender a church that has been the pivot of the social and religious life - Whittingehame Parish Church, is on sale! This was the backdrop of my shock about the content of the sale-notice.

 

There is one more reason. A few years before, there was a statement of a political leader in India that people of UK and the entire Europe disown their religion and the churches had been put for sale as a property. That political leader was claiming that the Western countries are going away from Christ and the churches were converted into shopping malls or trade centres. There upon I was waiting for a chance to know whether the findings of the political leader were true or false. With the visit to Whittingehame Parish Church, the claim of that political leader has been substantiated. But all churches were not on sale, only a few.

 

After some time, before taking the sleep in the bed room of the static caravan, I Googled once again, after which my turbulent mind became calm on reading an unexpected title: 20 Churches & Places of Worship for Sale in Scotland. The title retrieved calmness into my mind to slip into a sound sleep in the small congested bedroom of the static caravan in the midst of a farm, nearby horses neighed in their stable.