Choir 5

The Sanctuary: upward-lifting (anagogical) experience

With this upward-lifting (anagogical) sequence of images we have reached our destination: the most sacred part of the cathedral.  The sacred nature of the place is indicated not only by liturgical furniture, relics and images but by the dynamism of space, light and architectural form.

The layperson advancing eastwards down the length of the nave has been led forward by emphatic horizontal orthogonal projection--will we finally reach the vanishing point where everything converges?   The radial design of the hemicycle which marks the end of our pilgrimage rotates this horizontal track, creating a great vertical axis linking earth and heaven: or more specifically linking the resurrected body of Christ inherent in the Eucharistic sacrament on the altar to the image of Christ in the keystone above: Christ is the hidden center point.

For members of the clergy seated in their stalls and facing each other across the central space of the choir the radial force of the hemicycle represented the hoped-for unity of their corporate life.