Ely's Lantern

Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire is a wonderful building. While its cocktail of Romanesque, decorated and perpendicular styles are barely remarkable, its central octagonal tower most certainly is. Atop its height there is a 'lantern', admitting much daylight into the otherwise dark spaces below. What this must have saved in chandlers’ fees and electric bills must surely have paid back the considerable initial outlay. Furthermore, natural, God-given light washes the shadowy floors and pillars below, with which human illumination could barely compete.

Pray that in our chapel, and in readers’ churches, the pure daylight of God’s word is freely admitted and utilised, while the dim sparks of man’s wisdom and insight be minimised and sidelined.

NUN: Thy word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths. Psalm 119:105, Geneva Bible