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BY TURNING WE COME ROUND RIGHT

Canon Edward Probert, Chancellor (Thursday 1st March 2007)

At the end of January, my colleagues and I made a brief trip to the French cathedral city of Chartres. To some extent of course (why deny it?) this was to enjoy ourselves; but we were all also keen to learn from this very important cathedral. We were treated immensely hospitably by the Recteur (equivalent to the Dean) and by two of the cathedral’s staff. Our new friends at Chartres listened with some awe to our accounts of the number of staff and volunteers who work at Salisbury; these were resources of which they could only dream. Of course the French Church does not have own or have responsibility for it buildings. The mediaeval glass is the glory of Chartres, and we spent a long time looking at that when daylight came. But we had also asked to see the labyrinth, set in the floor of the nave, the pattern for many other mediaeval and modern labyrinths. Our hosts had very kindly cleared many dozen chairs from it to allow us to view it clearly. The following morning the chairs were back, and one would easily have walked over it without knowing it existed. But, seen as a part of the whole structure of the cathedral, this mazy path made within a circle and tending towards a central point was remarkable. We discussed it at some length with our hosts, who have mixed feelings. Of the many groups who ask to come and walk the labyrinth, some exhibit a profound spiritual interest. But, on the other hand, the cathedral feels it must vet all requests carefully, because there are many who seem unaware of the labyrinth’s Christian significance and purpose. So, while administering this ancient element of their cathedral occupies a lot of their time, they are conscious that its real meanings are only grasped by those who also have God in the picture. The whole of March this year falls within Lent, and Lent is above all a season for clarity of thinking in the midst of the ambiguity of nearly all human experience. The tortuous paths we tread only make sense when related to the one who gives meaning and purpose.

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