CATHEDRAL FEATURED IN NEW SERIES OF STAMPS
The Cathedral is one of six which is featured on a new series of stamps - launched May 13 - by Royal Mail. You can help the Cathedral's Choral Scholarship Fund by purchasing a commemorative notelet which contains one of the stamps. Details below.
The issue features the stunning interiors of Lichfield, Belfast, Gloucester, St David's, Westminster and St Magnus in the Orkney Islands. A four-stamp sheet of St Paul's Cathedral was aso issed.
The Very Reverend Dr Houston McKelvey, Dean, Belfast Cathedral, who attended the launches inST aul’s Cathedral and in Belfast, said: "I am delighted that Belfast Cathedral has been selected to feature on one of these stamps. It is a real treat to see the features of our Cathedral in such intricate detail and I congratulate Royal Mail on the production of this very special stamp issue.
"There is more to Belfast Cathedral than being a place for daily worship. It has also been at the forefront of many events in its long history providing a peaceful environment and hospitable space for civic, community and inter-church services. It dominates the skyline of our city with its new Spire of Hope and rightly deserves to stand alongside the five other Cathedrals.
Barbara Roulston, Head of External Relations, Royal Mail Group Belfast said: "These stamps are a fitting tribute to these beautiful and prominent buildings and I am delighted to see Northern Ireland represented by Belfast Cathedral.
"The level of detail achieved on the stamps is quite astonishing. The interiors of these Cathedrals have been captured in breath-taking detail which perfectly conveys their grandeur."
Each of the six stamps is photographed in black and white with the images taken facing towards the individual high altars. The use of the natural light of each Cathedral brings out their stunning and diverse interiors. The stamps are designed by Howard Brown whose focus on St Paul's Cathedral is in celebration of the tercentenary (300th anniversary) of the completion of St Paul's. Peter Marlow photographed the six Cathedrals.
Belfast Cathedral has produced a special commemorative cover for the stamp and this will be on sale at the Cathedral. The procedes will be donated to the cathedral’s Choral Scholarship fund.” The cost is £2.00, by post £2.50 - Cheques payable to BCCA. (Belfast Cathedral, Donegall Street, BT1 2HB).
The stamps
1st Class- Lichfield
This is the only medieval English cathedral with three spires, "the Ladies of the Vale". The present Gothic cathedral, on the site of a wooden Saxon church holding the shrine of St Chad, was begun in 1195: the beautiful carved stone angel found under the floor in 2005 may have come from the original shrine.
48p - Belfast
After the foundation stone of St Anne's was laid in 1899, it was built around a parish church which remained in use until the cathedral was complete - only a window now survives of the old church. A 100-metre stainless steel spire was added in 2007.
50p - Gloucester
The foundations of the present building were laid by the 11th century Abbot Serlo. One 14th century stained glass window has the earliest known image of golf - proving to thesatisfaction of the proud citizens that the game is not a Scottish invention.
56p - St David's
St David's occupies the site of the saint's monastery at the most westerly point in the British Isles, a shrine so important that in 1081 William the Conqueror himself came. The present building was begun in 1181, damaged by structural failure and earthquake a century later, and left so ruinous by the Civil War that restoration took centuries.
72p - Westminster
John Francis Bentley designed Westminster Cathedral, on the site of the old Tothill Fields prison, after seeking inspiration in Romanesque cathedrals on the continent, including St Mark's in Venice. Work began in 1895, its great striped campanile soon rose higher than the western towers of the nearby Abbey, and it opened in 1903, but work on the interior mosaics continues to this day.
81p - St Magnus
St Magnus’ was begun in 1137 by Earl Rognvald Kolsson to enshrine the bones of the murdered saint, his uncle - and to further his campaign to wrest control of the entire kingdom of Orkney. It is unique in belonging, by royal decree, to the people of Kirkwall, not the diocese, and still has many links with Scandinavia, including the Norwegian system of bell ringing.
