Shoppers in Cardiff have a new view into the city’s oldest church as its wooden doors are replaced with transparent glass ones.
And everyone is invited to take a closer look at a special event next week when the Archbishop of Wales will bless them.
St John the Baptist Church, next to the indoor market, is the oldest remaining Mediaeval building in the city, after the Castle, dating from the 12th Century. Its new doors, however, add a bold dimension that is every inch 21st Century. For the first time, people can see straight through into the church while the congregation can look out to the streets and benefit from extra light.
There are three sets of doors – one at the external entrance and two at the porch – and they all have a simple design of one long, symmetrical cross. They were designed by local architect Martin Killick.
The Archbishop, Dr Barry Morgan, will bless them on Tuesday – the Feast of St John the Baptist – at 6pm. The Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Margaret Jones, will also be present and will read a lesson.
It’s a project which was nearly a decade in the planning, says the priest-in-charge of St John’s, Canon Dr Sarah Rowland Jones.
“The new doors have made a huge difference to the church – it feels light, airy, modern and inviting now,” she says. “They also symbolise the ‘goings out and comings in’ between church and city. The church is very visibly open to, and connected with, the city around, and the city always has a place within the church.
“All who live, work, shop or visit in Cardiff, and representatives of all our city ‘institutions’, from governance to sport and social networks, are warmly invited to share in celebrating the continuing role of this place of worship, and sanctuary of peace, at the heart of our city for more than 800 years.”
The Archbishop said, “Someone once said the two most important parts of a church were its altar and its doors. Doors are significant because we go through them to take the Christian message out from the church to the wider world. Glass doors are even more significant because they enable people from outside to look through the church to the altar and to the heart of what the Christian message is all about.”
