Heritage
A Church for us is more than a building – it is a Sacred Space, filled with God’s presence. Everything within that space – the paintings, the statues, the stained glass – exists for a spiritual purpose.
This is to provide people with a focus for prayer and an insight into God: literally a ‘glimpse of heaven’. The word ‘Patrimony’ describes the Church’s cultural inheritance in terms of architecture, art and artefacts. All witness to our Catholic past: a history of persecution, struggle and ultimately, revival. We are just custodians, with a duty to preserve these sacred treasures for the future. Today we also create the Patrimony of tomorrow by commissioning high quality Sacred art.
Much of our work is done through the Patrimony Committee. This oversees the work of the diocesan Historic Churches Committees, and acts as the interface between Government authorities and the Church in relation to planning and heritage matters.
A Glimpse of Heaven
A recent project of the Patrimony Committee, in collaboration with English Heritage, is the publication of the book A Glimpse of Heaven. With a text by Christopher Martin and photographs by Alex Ramsay it describes and illustrates many of the finest Catholic churches in England and Wales.
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English Heritage, 2006
ISBN 978 185074 970 7