Chichester Cathedral

Yesterday I travelled from Hampshire to West Sussex to see the cathedral at Chichester. Knowing the train companies’ difficulty running their stock in sunny weather, I set off to catch the 06.37 before the warmth melted the tracks and the afternoon’s mass cancellations began. Sadly, it had already been cancelled, though I managed to catch a London train and change at other stations. Arriving around 8, I had a pleasant time strolling around this ancient and quiet city, largely unspoiled, until I saw the Pride Progress flag flapping from the roof of the townhall: “et in arcadia, ego”.

The small city is somewhat dominated by its relatively large cathedral, the spire of which may be seen from ships at sea. Unusually, it has four towers, two at the west end, one in the middle and one detached from the rest wherein the bells are kept and rung. I have seen this occasionally at parish churches but never a bishop’s seat. Bellringers have not always been the most pious of folk, so separating their affairs from the worship below might not have been a bad idea. Within, one sees the beauty of the rounded, Norman style and the emergence of gothic, pointing us upwards.

Upon its walls are a number of peculiar paintings showing various English monarchs and bishops of Chichester. I suspect it was a bit of Tudor toadying: Henry VIII liked to be flattered and the thought of his image in a cathedral would have given him enormous pleasure. The bishop who commissioned it all, Robert Sherborne, arranged for all his predecessors to be painted, but, can you believe it, to have his face on every single one of them. Dozens of images of bishops, including two that had been canonised, all looking just like him. One has to marvel at his brazen cheek (or multiplicity of cheeks). 

We often assume and even demand that greater Christians than ourselves share our views and replicate our opinions. Worse, we assume this of God, too. Like the wily and vain bishop of Chichester, we paint our likeness upon Him. The real Christian approaches God’s word with a view to having his opinions changed and moulded, but the charlatan approaches God’s word with the intention of bending it to his will, to make it reflect his pre-supposed theology. If God is made in your image then you worship an idol. If you are not being made in His image, then you are not one of His children.