The choir takes up most of the cathedral's interior, so had been imaginatively arranged to include the entire congregation within it, being held by the choir stalls in a kind of woody embrace. They've also turned the area around the font (which would be a entire huge nave in many cathedrals) into a very beautiful chapel / prayer space.
The altar is magnificent - see the photo. Now that kind of lavishness (or gaudiness) may not be to your taste, although I rather liked it. But it reminded me of something my Old Testament tutor, Philip Jensen, talked about during my training days. He said that in all architecture we have a tendency to put the things we most value in the centre and at an elevated height. The Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem temple, for example. Or Nelson in Trafalgar Square. Or the Royal family on the balcony at a Buckingham Palace celebration. Or photos of our family on the mantelpiece.
He invited us to look at church architecture and ask: what matters most here? In ancient and medieval churches it was usually the altar, the table at which bread and wine were blessed and shared. In many Protestant churches that was exchanged for the pulpit, the place from which the word of God is taught. After a while those pulpits became overshadowed by gigantic pipe organs (make of that what you will!) And in a lot of modern churches - even when they're meeting in ancient buildings - front and centre on a platform is given over to the band (often, but not always, the drum kit ...)
Here in Carlisle there's no guessing about what lies centre stage. Bread is broken and shared, the death and life of Christ made present in sacramental ways, the community of God's people fed. And behind the altar, four Latin words to remind us what this is all about, this broken body and outpoured blood. Sic Deus dilexit mundum. This is how God loved the world.
I sat in the stalls and quietly sang the Jesus Prayer for about an hour, surrounded by that love. Heaven.
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