Friday Headlines
the weekly newsletter from EHS
Year 12 Explore Faith at Birmingham Cathedral
02 February 2024
On the morning of Tuesday 30 January, the Year 12 Religious Studies students set out to visit Birmingham Cathedral, in the city centre, accompanied by Mr Wiggins.
We left school promptly at nine o’clock, travelling on the minibus to arrive at the Cathedral. Whilst we were walking across ‘pigeon park’ we were fortunate enough to see one of the Cathedral’s many charity initiatives in the form of volunteers from the “Let’s Feed Brum” campaign providing meals for homeless people.
Upon entering the Cathedral, we were warmly greeted by Harriet Ellis who spoke briefly about the history of the site, before giving us workbooks and commencing our tour. We discussed beliefs about God and the Trinity, making notes, and were shown various icons showcasing diverse artistic expressions of Jesus from various cultures. These included a cross with Jesus on it, made in the 1980s using leftover wooden planks from train tracks and a portrait of the Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus, dressed in the traditional style of various African cultures.
Harriet then led us to another icon of a crucifix where we discussed the nature of God as personal and as a creator and debated the Catholicity, Apostolicity and the Holiness of the Church. After this, we were brought to the back and front of the church to observe the stunning stained glass windows which depicted scenes such as the Day of Judgement, the Nativity and Jesus’ Crucifixion. We annotated the images of the stained glass windows in our book and expressed our opinions on how these showed God’s love.
Finally, we were fortunate enough to be able to do a question and answer session with Canon Andy, who was very helpful in answering all of these. After our wonderful time
visiting the Cathedral, we took the minibus back to school, arriving just in time for a well deserved lunch.
