Searching for the light

Great South Coast blippers meet today at Winchester Cathedral, lovely to see friends, put names to faces and have a bit of a laugh. Sorry I had to rush off rather, but with the week I've just had I needed to make up for all the undone's of the past days. Really hope we can do it again sometime and look forward to seeing all the resulting blips tonight

Last year was the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible and in celebration Winchester Cathedral commissioned a glorious series of silk chiffon banners for the nave. For those who don't know, the Cathedral holds the Winchester Bible, the largest and one of the most beautiful English medieval bibles in the world. The nave is the longest in Europe. So with these facts together you can see the thinking behind the banners, whose designs are taken from the bible and were made by artist Sophie Hacker with graphic designer Mark Arn.

So, armed with new camera, I wanted to see if I could get a shot of these banners. I like this one because it says all sorts of things to me about how we look at the church and deity (whoever we feel our god is or isn't - sorry, am I being serious?). Something to do with a searching for light, seeing it through veils - half colours - swirling scrolls - layers of transparency - I don't know. He's rather paternalistic, this saint, isn't he, but I trust in a nice way. He looks to me like a kind and distant great uncle I might have been rather in awe of, but that certainly chimes with the church of my childhood. (Except, of course, none of my known great uncles - or vicars - wore scarlet lipstick!)