EcclSoc Annual Conference: The Twentieth-Century Cathedral

This year’s conference looks at the phenomenon of the on-going building and designation of new cathedrals in the twentieth century by the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. Our expert speakers will address a variety of stimulating questions.

• In an increasingly secular world, why was it thought necessary to build new cathedrals at all, and why were some newly built and others adapted from existing parish churches?
• For what kind of liturgy were the buildings designed, and how successful were they in their own terms?
• How do these cathedrals differ in their needs and design from medieval and Victorian notions?
• How were new designs arrived at? How and why were particular styles chosen? What was the role of architectural competitions? 
• How do Roman Catholic cathedrals differ from Anglican ones?
• And finally, how are C20 cathedrals lasting the course? Do they still work? How suited are the older twentieth-century cathedrals for present-day liturgy, and how well, have they been adapted?

The day will broadly be structured around an Anglican morning and a Roman Catholic afternoon.

1.Introduction: an overview of what drove the creation of new cathedrals in the twentieth century and the common themes between them. (Rev Dr Allan Doig, fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford; historian of liturgy and church architecture.)

"Surprisingly, the twentieth century was an age of new cathedrals in England, in both the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches. At the forefront of this remarkable phenomenon are the Anglican Cathedrals in Liverpool and Coventry, and the Roman Catholic Cathedrals of Liverpool and Bristol. Each of these is in its own way a radical architectural response to a practical theological problem, or perhaps more accurately, a set of practical, pastoral and theological problems, but if ‘form follows function’ in any meaningful sense at all, how are we to deal with such different buildings within the single category of ‘cathedral’?

Dare I suggest that the Ecclesiological Society is uniquely and specifically equipped to analyse and assess these buildings as architectural responses in their own terms and their own times and in their continuing ministries? ‘Ecclesiology’ has two distinct meanings, depending who you are talking to. In the printed version of the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, the definition was specifically shaped by this Society as the ‘science of church building and decoration’, with the reference being to A Handbook of English Ecclesiology, published by the Society in 1847. If, on the other hand, I am talking to a colleague who is a theologian, they will be thinking about another more contemporary Handbook of Ecclesiology published by Oxford in 2018 which offers a broader definition as ‘the study of the self-understanding of the Church through the centuries’. I would contend that the two definitions both provide effective tools for analysing and understanding the other: that is to say, the study of Churches as institutions can illuminate the study of churches as buildings, and vice versa, posing the question, how did the understanding of what it is to be a Church in that place, at that time, in that urban context, in that Communion result in that architectural form?

What was it about Scott’s competition entry for Liverpool Cathedral that held up a mirror to the Church (or at least the committee); or similarly at Coventry; or at the Metropolitan Cathedral what was it that caused such a profound shift in direction between the Lutyens and the Gibberd designs? Over the passage of time into the new millennium have these buildings allowed the Churches to continue their authentic ministries in changed circumstances or left them shackled to a period piece? These are some of the questions to be broached, but their resolution would take all day, and more."

2.Liverpool Anglican Cathedral: formally known as the Cathedral Church of Christ in Liverpool, Giles Gilbert Scott’s enormous building. (Dr David Lewis, fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford; specialist in church architecture from the late nineteenth century onwards and author of a forthcoming book on Scott.)

An Engine of Emotion of Nothing: Atmosphere and Liturgy in the Design of Liverpool Cathedral: Giles Gilbert Scott believed that church architecture should inspire an emotional reaction in the worshiper. He thus sought to use all the techniques of stage design to make Liverpool Cathedral as dramatic as possible. The new liturgies developed for the cathedral were viewed in some sense as performances, and the plan and furnishing of the cathedral were designed to accommodate them, with wide processional spaces, modular furniture, and mounts for broadcasting equipment that could be reconfigured based on the desired liturgical format. This paper will examine the various ways that Scott refined the Liverpool Cathedral design in order to allow for liturgical experimentation and to encourage a sense of participation in the worshipper.

3.Coventry Cathedral: built by Basil Spence as a successor to the destroyed medieval cathedral, with which it relates closely, creating one of the very finest post-War churches (Prof Louise Campbell, University of Warwick; expert in architecture from late nineteenth century onwards and author of a number of books on Coventry Cathedral and Spence.)

The new cathedral was built to replace its medieval predecessor (to which it relates closely) destroyed by bombing in 1940, as well as to serve as a war memorial and symbol of Britain's reconstruction as well as a place of worship. This paper will consider how Basil Spence approached the design of the new cathedral at a time of rapid societal, liturgical and architectural change, and reviews the success and failure of the building after its consecration in 1962.

4.Roman Catholic cathedrals in context: exploring the variety within this group of cathedrals and their characteristics (Andrew Derrick, Vice Chairman of the Society and architectural consultant, who has worked with a number of these cathedrals.)

For most of the twentieth century, the Catholic Church in England and Wales was in expansionist mode, with a huge programme of church building. This included new or enlarged Cathedrals, either to serve newly established dioceses or to provide long-awaited permanent buildings in existing ones. Five Cathedrals were built, and three more or less rebuilt (one of them twice). Perhaps the finest of them all was destined never to rise above crypt level. In the late 1960s and 1970s cathedrals underwent reordering, sometimes drastic, to meet the demands of a new liturgy and a new ecclesiology, while recent decades have seen attempts at mitigation of some of the worst excesses, a ‘reordering of the reordering’. Some of the major building projects (Liverpool, Clifton) are well known; others (Northampton, Middlesbrough) less so. Each is a product of its time in terms of liturgical outlook, architecture and aesthetics, economics and the perceived place of Catholicism in British culture. This paper will provide a tour d’horizon, looking at the main drivers behind cathedral building, design and reordering in the twentieth century, and considering how this legacy is to be managed as the expansionism which gave rise to their construction has given way to a mood of retrenchment if not decline.

5.Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral: the culmination of a number of aborted plans, starting with Lutyens’ abandoned Byzantine behemoth, this was finally built by Frederick Gibberd (Jon Wright, Senior Heritage Consultant with Purcell, and who has worked on this cathedral.)

Ticket price: (including refreshments, a hot lunch, and a glass of wine afterwards) £75.00 for members of the Ecclesiological Society and their guests; £85.00 for non-members; £40.00 for students. This will be an in-person event only. Tickets are non-refundable.

Location: St James-the-Less, Pimlico, is a ten-minute walk from Victoria Station and a five minute walk from Pimlico Underground Station, which is on the Victorian Line.