For over 1300 years this Minster has been a centre for pilgrimage, prayer and worship.
As a Minster in the early days it was a centre of mission,
a home for a group of clergy who went out into the surrounding
countryside to preach the Gospel.
As a Parish Church today it has a central place in the lives of
its members and in the life of the town. It is not a museum,
although we have inherited some wonderful treasures from the past.
It is a living centre for work, worship and prayer.
I hope you will feel something of this if you are able to visit us and
look around the Minster; that you will feel a warmth of welcome,
whether you come in the summer when our Guides and 'Ministry of Welcome'
are on duty, or in the quiet of the winter. Perhaps you will also sense
that this is a building that has been loved by generations of men and women -
notice how each age has added to the fabric and ornaments of the building
to form it's overall character.
Most of all, I hope you will feel that this is a place of prayer. People have come here for hundreds of years to worship God, and to bring before him their private joys and sorrows and worries.
We try to keep the Crypt Chapel as a quiet place where we and our visitors can pray. If you can find time in your visit to pray for us and our work, you will be sharing in a very worthy tradition.
We hope in return that you will take with you from your visit a sense of God's continuing presence.