Mass in Westminister Abbey

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Caesar

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I caught this little story while browsing the excellent blog, ORBIS CATHOLICVUS.

On January 5th, 2008, for the first time in nearly 500 years a Catholic Mass was celebrated in Westminister Abbey. Holy Mass, according to the traditional Rite, was celebrated by the Oratorian Fathers of London at the tomb of St. Edward the Confessor, King of England and founder of Westminister Abbey.

The Abbey, now Anglican, has become little more then a museum. How unfortunate. But these pictures are interesting:





 
This is interesting. I wonder why the Anglicans permitted it.

What do you mean by saying that it’s a museum? Are Anglican services no longer celebrated there regularly?
 
Dauphin said:
This is interesting. I wonder why the Anglicans permitted it.

What do you mean by saying that it’s a museum? Are Anglican services no longer celebrated there regularly?
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Yes there are Anglican services there, but beyond that it is treated more like a museum then it is a church.
 
Caesar said:
Yes there are Anglican services there, but beyond that it is treated more like a museum then it is a church.
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You ever seen St Peter’s??? Similar number of and attitude to tourists. Doesn’t make either any the less a genuine church.
 
LilyM said:
You ever seen St Peter’s??? Similar number of and attitude to tourists. Doesn’t make either any the less a genuine church.
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Well considering St. Peter’s Basilica is the motherchurch of Catholicism and the resting place of St. Peter, I think it differs slightly from the now Anglican church of Westminister Abbey.
 
Caesar said:
Well considering St. Peter’s Basilica is the motherchurch of Catholicism and the resting place of St. Peter, I think it differs slightly from the now Anglican church of Westminister Abbey.
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It differs but not in a way which is relevant to the point. Your expressed gripe was about how it’s treated like a museum - well, St Peters is treated as a museum/tourist attraction as well, every bit as much so. The Sistine Chapel too.

And an Anglican church is nonetheless a church, like it or not - a Christian house of worship.

On my last trip to Europe I went to all three - St Peters, the Sistine Chapel and Westminster Abbey - within about ten days of each other, so the similarities were obvious.
 
at the tomb of St. Edward the Confessor, King of England and founder of Westminister Abbey.

Did you know that some British Orthodox consider Edward and Harold to be the last Orthodox monarchs of England?

Edward’s grandson died as a Russian Orthodox monk.
 
The Westminster Abbey is a Royal Peculiar (I am not making this up!). It is thereby not a regular part of the Church of England under the local bishop.

It is controlled by the Monarchy, that can possibly explain a lot of things.
 
The patron saint of Westminster Abbey is St. Peter.

Funds were diverted from St. Peter to help St. Paul’s Cathedral, the cathedral of the Bishop of London.

This is the origin of the expression “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
 
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