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Cordoned-off cathedral |
‘Act of God’ spares congregation
HUNDREDS of parishioners were spared from disaster when the ceiling of a Mayfair cathedral fell in.
More than 1,500 worshippers had packed the Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family in Exile in Duke Street on Sunday night, hours before the domed-roof cracked, showering the pews with giant stone boulders.
Rev Ivan Bilyk, the cathedral administrator of the Ukrainian diocese, said the solid oak benches and pews were smashed. “It was an act of God,” he said.
The church’s insurance policy will not cover the repair bill and a mass fundraising campaign was needed to restore the Grade II* listed building.
It is likely to costs hundreds of thousands of pounds and take more than a year.
The cathedral has been closed and the congregation is being accommodated by the Church of Immaculate Conception, a Jesuit church in Farm Street, Mayfair. Ged Clapson, a spokesman there, said: “It’s lucky no one was in the church when it happened. It’s going to take 10 to 12 months to repair. That gives you an estimate of the damage. The churches are both part of the deanery and they meet occasionally. It’s going to brings us together more closely.”
Farm Street’s parish priest Father William Pearsall said: “Our capacity isn’t as great as the Ukrainian cathedral, and we have only limited facilities, so there are going to be some interesting logistics. But this is the least we can do to help out our fellow Catholics at this time of crisis.”
The two churches belong to the same groups of parishes. The Ukrainian Catholic Church is the largest of the Catholic Church’s eastern branches.
It was designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1891 for occupation by the Congregational King’s Weigh House. They sold it to the Catholic Church in 1967. |
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