Dean of Westminster
Here is a new edition of the annual Abbey Review. Like the Abbey itself, the Review is always itself, always old, always new. The idea that you can Review the life of the Abbey is, frankly, laughable. A building so massive, so muscular, and so still manages to be strangely elusive. It has a rich and long history that defies our best attempts to provide a complete record. It is filled with so many visitors who encounter it in so many different ways; it is a church for daily worship and for national thanksgiving, a place of shifting moods.
The Abbey is a shrine and it is holy ground, it is a house of memory, it is a community and college, a gathering place for nation and Commonwealth and a summons to us all to look to the coming of the Kingdom of God. This edition of the Review does its best to speak out of that.
Here, you will find articles that give us glimpses of that long history that I have mentioned. I really enjoyed getting reacquainted with St. Erasmus and reading Daniel Rafiqi’s take on James I and VI. There are members of the Abbey community for you to meet and there is information about what we have been doing and what lies ahead. I would like to particularly commend the article on homelessness and on the wonderful work of The Passage. Our strengthening relationship with The Passage has been one of the best developments of recent years.
Finally, there is an opportunity to read about a wonderful hour that I spent in the company of Alan Bennett. I have loved his work for years and, as a History Boy myself, it was a huge privilege to talk to him about the Abbey and our attempts to find the right words to describe what we find here. Sitting with him, in a room filled with books and pictures, steeped in associations and memories, and listening to his extraordinary insights so humbly offered will be one of my enduring memories of my time here.
Maddy Fry Editor
When you’re writing about Westminster Abbey, and asking others to as well, it can be daunting to tackle something so immense.
One answer is to start with what you love. For someone who has often been torn career-wise between a fascination with history and politics and a love for the arts, there was something enthralling about spending an hour with Alan Bennett and then trotting off to write about a documentary filmed in the Abbey where Hollywood’s big names managed to crowbar their way in between the busy schedules of a working church. Afterwards, it was rather lovely to edit pieces where ‘unresolved conversations’ (to quote the Dean) and unexpected harmonies have crept in — whether it’s the unequal memorialisation of James I & VI compared with the mother he barely knew, or the symbiosis between the ancient tradition of pilgrimage and the modern revival of cathedral worship. There’s plenty beneath the surface (one that we’ve barely scratched here) if you’re willing to look, and a lot of unspoken dialogue for those willing to listen.
One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was that in the economy of God, nothing is wasted - and little in the Abbey feels superfluous. If rebels and artists are more your thing than the pomp and circumstance of national events, you’ll find something to send a shiver down your spine. Just look at the window dedicated to Oscar Wilde or the statues to Martin Luther King and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. For me, there was nothing like standing in front of the grave to Laurence Olivier, absorbing how he died the year I was born and feeling like my heart was about to burst. Continuity runs deep here as much as change. This building was here before us, and will be long after any of us. There’s something comforting about that.
The Abbey has a place for everyone. Within the pages of this magazine, I hope you find yours.
The first female Speaker of the House of Commons, Baroness Boothroyd, died in 2023 and was honoured at a memorial service at St Margaret’s church in January. Peers and MPs from across the spectrum and members of the Gurkha Welfare Trust, a cause she supported, attended.
February 2024 saw the dedication of a memorial stone to Sir Ernest Shackleton in the south cloister. Shackleton was famous for his skilled and principled navigation of various expeditions in Antarctica, where he often put the safety of his crew above personal glory. His voyages have been featured multiple times on screen, including in the films Scott of the Antarctic and Shackleton
In March, the Abbey marked the 200th anniversary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the 146,000 lives saved. His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent and a congregation of 1800 attended to commemorate its history, reflect on the vital service it provides today, and look ahead to inspire future generations of lifesavers and supporters.
Right: Lifeboat crews were amongst those who attended
The Emperor and Empress of Japan visited Westminster Abbey in June as part of their State Visit to the United Kingdom. Following prayers at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, the Emperor laid a wreath in honour of the fallen of the two World Wars and more recent conflicts. Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako were then escorted by the Dean of Westminster on a tour of the Abbey.
Right: The Emperor and Empress of Japan bowed to the Unknown Warrior
Lord Byron was a poet and socialite, famous for works that included So We‘ll Go No More A-Roving and She Walks In Beauty. He became an occupant of Poets’ Corner in 1969, and in April this year, the 200th anniversary of his death was marked by a wreath-laying ceremony in the Abbey.
A Service of Thanksgiving took place at the Abbey in July to mark 30 years since the end of apartheid and the country’s transition to democracy. Tributes to Nelson Mandela, who died in 2013 and has a memorial stone in the nave, were included.
In the first of a series of Conversations with the Dean, The Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle had the immense privilege of cha ing with Alan Benne at his London home.
In a playful and erudite discussion, Benne looked back on his play The History Boys while also expressing great a ection for the Abbey three decades after the screening of his muchloved BBC series, The Abbey with Alan Benne .
Next year it will be 30 years since the release of The Abbey with Alan Benne . What were the standout moments for you?
AB
When I did the TV programmes in 1995, I had only once been in the Abbey as a tourist. Not being especially devout I have nevertheless always felt the Abbey as a particularly holy place and one which revealed itself only gradually…the nave didn’t reveal the quire, the quire the sacrarium, the sacrarium the lady chapel. It’s a secretive building, but one that inspires affection.
I remember when Dean Michael Mayne first took me round, he stroked and indeed caressed the various monuments (not all of them comely) as we talked about them and the building.
Do you have any favourite areas?
AB
I don’t have a favourite part, but I always liked the most numinous object in the Abbey, which is the pulpit in the nave from which Thomas Cranmer preached at the baptism of the young Edward VI.
In a long life the greatest privilege I have enjoyed is exclusive access to private places and the most exclusive Westminster Abbey. While making three television programmes, I was often in the Abbey last thing at night and entirely alone. To be alone in a public place is, these days, a great luxury.
DH
In the programme you really powerfully mentioned all the extraordinary juxtapositions: Pitt and Fox, Gladstone and Disraeli, Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots…I was alone there during Covid, and I found that you can identify your place there amid all these unresolved conversations. Convincing people of that is my job!
What has the building meant to you since then?
I’ve been in the Abbey several times since and have had to speak at various services, including the memorial service for Dame Thora Hird. This was a joyful affair, complete with Salvation Army Band which the BBC were foolish not to film. Dean Carr, though, was rather stern, telling me that if I spoke for longer than six minutes, he would cut me off. It was an admonition that had Victoria Wood and me in giggles by the pulpit steps, especially when Victoria regretted the absence of a Stannah stair lift.
Another terrifying occasion was when I was speaking at the commemoration of AE Housman in Poets’ Corner. I was glared at by Enoch Powell, who was a formidable classics scholar. He softened so I think I passed the test.
Visiting only occasionally nowadays, I find I’m wedded to the Abbey as it was when I made the programmes. I miss the old-fashioned wooden chairs, no ornaments but with a history of their own. Now they are just stackable. I still feel the Coronation Chair belongs near the shrine rather than the west end, not to mention the Stone of Scone which should never have been exported to Scotland. Michael Mayne didn’t think so either. If it’s not necessary to change, it’s necessary not to change.
Still, it’s a unique place and I am privileged to have figured in its multitudinous history, which is the history of England. AB
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