A third Evensong and a tour of the church tower

     Yesterday, many of us were given the opportunity to climb up into the 'octagon' tower of Ely Cathedral. This portion of the Nave is famous in the U.K. for its weight and size. If you look at a picture of Ely, it's the second tallest point on the building. Looking from the Nave, it appears to be a small octagonal shape in the ceiling, appearing at the connecting points of the transepts'' vaulting. Here's the view from the floor of the Cathedral:

     You'll notice that the octagon is lined with paintings of angels playing instruments, as if they're up in heaven looking down with you. These angels were painted by the father of Hubert Perry, famous English composer. They appeared, to my eye, to be about three feet high. Above these angels are stained glass windows. We climbed a couple hundred stairs up to the angels, and got the opportunity to 'open' the angels (turns out they act as doors). Here's how big those little tiny angels actually are:

     Yes, that's Charity pointing. I would guess those angels are about twelve feet tall. Now take a look back at that first picture. This cathedral is absolutely enormous. We also went outside and took a look around the city with a bird's eye view. 

     That night, we sang our third Evensong service, and we're getting good at this! There were many more people there this time, including many in the Nave itself. We were video-recorded singing our anthem for the evening: Peter Hallock's "The Lord is My Light". Peter Hallock was organist and choirmaster at St. Mark's for several decades, and it was an honor to represent our city and church with his music. Click HERE to view this video.