Condoleezza Comes to the Spiritual Centre of the World

Lancashire Evening Telegraph. Friday, April 21, 2006.

FRIENDS AND ALLIES: Jack Straw and Condoleezza Rice arrive in Blackburn

Two of the most powerful politicians in the Western world followed a spiritual journey through Blackburn Cathedral, to pray for peace before radical images of death and resurrection.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the Cathedral during a three-day visit to Blackburn and Liverpool at the invitation of Foreign Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw.

Climax of the Cathedral visit came as the two politicians’s lit candles for peace under Penny Warden’s painting of Christ in the tomb, given in memory of tsunami victims.

“Hear us as we pray for the life of the world,” said the Dean, the Very Rev Christopher Armstrong, “that every nation may seek the way that leads to peace; that human rights and freedom may everywhere be respected; and that the earth’s resources may be ungrudgingly shared among all.”

The guests signed the Visitors’ Book under Penny Warden’s triumphant golden study of the risen Christ. Dr Rice greeted each of the choir members and Penny Warden explained to Dr Rice some of the thinking behind her paintings.

A contemporary set of Stations of the Cross called ‘The Journey’ consisting of fifteen 6ft oil paintings depicting the final Journey of Christ to his death and resurrection. The paintings were commissioned in 2005 and are on permanent display at Blackburn Cathedral in Lancashire.

“Wonderfully creative- The Journey has such considerable healing potential” Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“Outstanding and very moving work, I hope it will speak to many” Archbishop Rowan Williams

‘‘Paintings by Penny Warden lining the nave depict Christ’s ‘agony, trials, suffering and death’. These are brittle, uncomforting images, although they give the cathedral an undeniably aesthetic potency.” England’s Cathedrals by Simon Jenkins Journalist and Author

“The Stations will be of national significance and compliment the already impressive stock of modern art at the Cathedral.” Dean of Blackburn.

“This major and permanent exhibition of modern art is probably the most adventurous of its kind in any English cathedral,” Canon Andrew Clitherow

“The most significant contemporary artistic commission in any church in the land” Canon Chris Chivers

“Remarkable” Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham

Penny’s gallery work can be viewed here…

Condoleezza Comes to the Spiritual Centre of the World

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