Heheheheheh... couldn't resist that title! The Mass was covered live by EWTN and BBC2, and the Catholic Herald had a twitter-thingy going on a special Installation Page on its website to keep everyone informed.Impressive stuff. My one gripe was that the "Sign of Peace" was included - it was a touchy-feely fest for the congregation, and even the priests concelebrating had a bit of a mill-around.
Not too sure about that morse though...
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The pectoral cross is a bit blingy. Something less likely to excite the envy of Queen Victoria wd have been better? I was glad for the new Abp's sermon. It sounded as though he was laying down a tentative programme and a bit of a gauntlet. Strangely this comes over better when one heard the sermon rather than when one reads it. It's also evident, I think, that Nichols is religious.Let us hope and pray that he is also courageous.
Pectoral cross? I thought it was part of the morse.
That isn't a pectoral cross - it is a morse - a highly decorated and jewelled clasp which functions as a decorative device to hold the cope in place ceremonially (the band between both sides of the cope do that practically). This particular morse is, I believe, one of the treasures of Westminster Cathedral and would only be used on major occasiosn.
The pectoral cross is hidden behind the morse.
Point taken... I don't think much of the morse then!
It was the tea trays that bothered me.
The morse reminds me of the shape of cross used by the archdiocese of Canterbury...perhaps someone was thinking about its historical importance while designing such a gaudy instrument!
"My one gripe was that the "Sign of Peace" was included - it was a touchy-feely fest for the congregation, and even the priests concelebrating had a bit of a mill-around"
Mill around with style and you could take a resetroom break with no one the wiser.
Hiding behind the morse is Archbishop Worlock's pectoral cross, which formerly belonged to Cardinal Griffin (the cardinal's jeweled mitre is, I think, still in the possession of the Archbishop of Liverpool, and it was last worn by Cardinal Casaroli who turned up at Liverpool cathedral as part of the papal entourage and had forgotten to bring his own mitre). Archbishop Nichols wore this jeweled cross at all the installation ceremonies.
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