Sunday, September 14, 2008

St Wulstan - 1,000 years today

"Happy is the man who grows sick of the attractions of the world: pleasure of them passes in a moment of time: the tooth of conscience gnaws as long as a man lives."
Always supposing you have a conscience, of course. The one thousandth anniversary of the birth of St Wulstan (or Wulfstan) of Worcester, anti-slavery campaigner, rebuilder of Worcester Cathedral (the crypt and the dining hall of King's School survives) and last Saxon bishop to survive the purges of William the Bastard, is celebrated today. Archbishop Vincent Nicholls will be at a service at Wulstan's old stamping ground of Worcester Cathedral today at 4 pm. I wonder who'll lead ? Will it be an ecumenical affair?





(I see by the way that Vincent Nicholls is being tipped to take over when Cardinal Murphy O'Connor retires. I wouldn't be surprised. I attended Mass in the Diocese of Birmingham six or seven years back and we were asked to pray for "our Bishop, Vincent, and Philip his assistant". I attended Mass in the diocese again a few months back and it was "Philip, William and David his assistants". He either needs a lot of assistance or he has some clout. Alas he seems to be soft on crime if the criminals are his employees. Is he as soft as Cormac Murphy O'Connor ?)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only 'commemoration' around the city centre (that I saw, anyway) is a pretty display in a Christian charity bookshop. Aside from that, I doubt many people walking through Worcester high street this weekend have any idea who Wulstan was or what he did.

Anonymous said...

I hadn't noticed any change in the mass in the diocese with regard to praying for the assistant bishop(s). Are you sure? It might have just passed me by.