Spirit of Life
On May 1st Coventry Cathedral hosted a Christian mind, body and spirit fair called, ‘Spirit of Life’. Our curate daughter, Paulette, was anxious to go as she is doing an MA in theology, and some of the activities would be helpful research when she is writing up her thesis. I was pleased to accompany Paulette as I had not been to Coventry before, and was especially interested in seeing the old and new cathedrals.
We arrived in time for the opening ceremony, a few words were said by the Dean, the Bishop of Coventry (his daughter is a good friend of our middle daughter, Nikki) and the Lord Mayor, before the event was opened by Angela Knowles of ‘Calendar Girl’ fame. Coventry has not hosted an event of this nature before, and as Lady Godiva was unavailable to do the honours, a Calendar Girl was the next best person! I had a chat with Angela afterwards, and found her to be a very sweet and lovely lady. I remarked that she was brave to pose in the all together for the calendar, albeit very tastefully, but as she has a wonderful figure it would not have taken as much courage as I would have needed in similar circumstances!!
The Spirit of Life Fair was fascinating and reflected the different ways in which Christians find meaningful communication with God. I enjoyed the rather New Age atmosphere of the event. There were about seventy activities, workshops, stalls and seminars. These comprised art, poetry, holistic healing, labyrinths, various meditations, Taize worship, liturgical dance, well dressing, learning to read the rosary, Jesus cards and crystals, spiritual clowning, Maypole dancing and much, much more.
I had a wonderful hand and Indian head massage, which were very relaxing. I also tried out the meditation labyrinth, a novel experience, but thought provoking and restful. Halo reading was very popular, but I was unable to obtain a slot, which fitted in with our train times. The gentleman doing this interesting activity had the ability to see a person’s aura and extrapolated the personality from the colour of the aura. I have to say I was a little sceptical, but was sorry not to have been able to get to know a bit more about the subject. Elsewhere people could have their dreams interpreted. It seemed a bit too much like fortune telling to me, and not something with which I would feel comfortable, so gave it a miss. There were some less way out activities, like a quiet place for private prayer and meditation and a cathedral service. There seemed to be something to please most tastes.
Having seen the new cathedral for myself, I can understand the controversy that has surrounded the building. In my opinion, it is best described as a futuristic conference centre, and as for that tapestry, "the least said soonest mended", as my late grandma would have said! I found that in spite of the old cathedral being in ruins, which are open to the sky, it much more spiritually uplifting than the new cathedral!
All in all Paulette and I had an enjoyable day out and had much to talk about on our way home.