CHRISTIAN VIEWPOINT: Inverness Cathedral may be unfinished - but is that the great Architect’s dream?
I thought of Inverness Cathedral when I read the Bible’s description of King Solomon’s massive temple-building project in Jerusalem, and his rhetorical question: ‘Yet will God really live with human beings on Earth?’
And so I explored the cathedral with Diocesan Architect Calum Maclean, who told me about its construction in the late 1860s, commissioned by Bishop Eden and designed by local architect Alexander Ross.
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There’s such beauty in the design, the sculptures, the music, the use of light, the worship. Many people find in beautiful things the call of a divine beauty which all loveliness reflects.
Throughout his career, Alexander Ross incorporated in new churches ideas from very old Scottish church architecture, such as Elgin Cathedral. A reminder that we’re part of a vibrant community of Jesus followers - on Earth and in Heaven - stretching back across the centuries.
The Jesus story is central to the Cathedral: the stained-glass depictions of his life, death and resurrection; the building’s cross-shaped design; the altar on which is dedicated the bread and wine which make tangible to us Christ’s death for us, and God’s welcome of us.
Calum tells me that apprentice carvers were encouraged to pick up a leaf or a plant on their way to work, and then carve it in the stonework at the top of the pillars. We each use our skills, bring beautiful things, our small actions becoming part of the overall design.
I see a poignant plaque beneath a stained glass window illustrating the young Jesus relating to his father God and his father Joseph. The plaque commemorates the sad death of Alexander’s own son at the age of eight months. Tragedy and sorrow are neither denied nor minimised in the building, but are seen in the context of the whole of life.
Calum’s story reminds me of our need for humility. Here’s Alexander willing to serve the community as much by designing a cowshed as a church. Willing to build a homely cathedral for the Highland community, rather than making arrogant architectural statements. All our efforts will be in vain unless they are the fruit of hearts humbly open to God.
Will God really live with human beings on Earth? Solomon recognised that we can’t build a house for God because the whole universe finds its home in God. Yet God, not in part but in totality lives with us in Jesus, making a home in our churches, our very lives.
There’s a plan of the cathedral, showing two massive spires sitting triumphantly on the towers: there was never enough money to build them. A reminder that the church as a community will always be incomplete until the end of time when at last the reality will perfectly reflect the great Architect’s dream.
