by Joe Fiechtl
July 8, 2024
How does old feel? I’ve lived in Staunton for 16 years. That seems like a long time to me. I am 53 years old. My kids say I am old and every now and then I feel it. I have friends that are another 30-40 years beyond that. Many of them often complain of feeling old. Trinity Church is just over 275 years old. That is definitely old, but how old that is really starts to go beyond something I can feel. They started building Wells Cathedral around 1175. Almost 850 years ago. Intellectually I know that’s old, but it is hard to feel that. It’s a big stone building that is a different style than I’m used to. Definitely old. When I first went into the cathedral I was following a tour guide and we were among many tourists groups and all the noise associated with a lot of people milling about in a large space. As we toured it was hard to feel the sacred in this space, to feel its age.
Two things I encountered changed the feel of this place.
The first was worn steps. At the end of our tour we were taken to the Chapter House. To get to it, we had to climb about 20 worn stone steps. They were worn down from foot after foot touching them. They were not easy to walk up or down. As we carefully walked up them, I felt every one of those feet stepping on those steps. I felt the years those steps had stood there. Centuries of priests and bishops walking on the very steps I was walking on. Men of faith meeting to direct the future of the church. I felt the age of this place with every step I took in their steps.
We left the cathedral for a while and then returned for the Senior Chorister Evensong. As we walked into the nave of the cathedral, all of us stopped and fell silent. Even my eight-year-old son who doesn’t stop or get quiet. We stopped at the sound of a single sung word. “Amen.” Sung by the Choristers as they were practicing. Everyone in this once bustling space was still and quiet, just listening. To an ethereal sung word. The voices of Trinity’s Senior Choristers, always beautiful, flowing through and filling this space, transformed the feeling of old into timelessness.
At that moment, this place became Sacred. All of the donations, the planning, the struggles to get to this moment crystallized into a timeless sacred beauty. Evensong has been done many times by this group in our church back in Staunton, but in this place it became something singularly special.
Their voices and this place combined to remind people why this cathedral is still here and in use after all these years.
Their voices and this place combined to show the attendees God on Earth.
Thank you, Trinity Church, for this gift to Wells.
Amen
