Westminster Cathedral

Last Sunday the Notre Dame program in London was welcomed to Westminster Cathedral for Mass. Note: Westminster Cathedral is Catholic, while Westminster Abbey is Anglican. The Cathedral itself is only about one hundred years old, when the Catholics were allowed the privilege again. They found a plot of land to build the Cathedral. The building itself is technically still incomplete. Some of the interior of the cathedral is unfinished, bare brick. I liked this because it gave a real focus to the inside; you knew where the important parts are because they are gilt or covered in mosaics. The blankness of some of the walls also makes the building look larger from the inside because there were parts you couldn't see.

I don't know what to think of the exterior; I dislike the busy brick look and the St. Basil's-esque quasi-onion dome look, but I like the grandeur and the classical style otherwise.

We were welcomed by a Notre Dame alum who is now a priest working at Westminster, and the sermon as well was directed towards us. Very warm and welcoming.

The music was Gregorian chant, which I normally like, but the execution was subpar. One lead male vocalist and one not-so-good organ, along with a large church, made it very hard to tell what note we were on. The lack of experience in chant of the 130 of us in the front of church didn't help either. When there was a second collection solely for the music efforts I contributed £2.

I look forward to going to Mass there again, but only as a default. Mass will be a good way to explore more churches and communities around London, but I expect we'll default to Westminster when we have no other plans.