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Ship of Fools: Basilica of St Nicholas, Nantes, France
The Mystery Worshipper
Shipmate
Ship of Fools: Basilica of St Nicholas, Nantes, France
Silent intensity, a remarkable tableau - with motorcycle helmets and school books
Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here
Comments
A city of beautiful churches, by the looks of it, despite the fires!
(BTW, a BBC item reported that President Macron has said that the spire of Notre Dame, Paris, will be restored to its pre-fire style, which IMHO is a pity, as the more modern replacement idea was, I think, far more imaginative. But YMMV).
The MW Report at least shows that the church in France is still very much alive and well. What was the mission they seemed to be on, one wonders?
Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Lead Editor, Mystery Worship
But this is certainly true, hopefully just as much today, as it was back in 2011!
I was struck by the intensity of the congregation, as you can see from my report. Nantes and its surrounding area was the departure point for thousands of clergy and religious heading out to the Americas and pretty well everywhere else. Since WWII, there has a been a strong sense of France as a mission territory so I think that the answer to your question is to their city and province.
In my university years I was often in settings full of young devout people, evangelical and otherwise, and I never sensed fervour there such as I did in the cathedral that day.
I wondered if, perhaps, they had had some sort of encouragement to do just that, maybe from a Mission Priest, or someone, prior to the MWer's visit.
It goes to show what effect 'doing what you do do, well' can have on someone visiting...
I wonder if the same would happen here, if the C of E was disestablished, the monarchy abolished, and England became a secular Republic?
Oh, you big tease, you!
I do wonder, sometimes, how the C of E would function if it were not some sort of State appendage, but that might be better discussed elsewhere.
Not connected at all with Nantes, but some years ago, whilst staying with my sister in SE France, I was intrigued to note that a small number of formerly disused abbeys were being (or had recently been) revived by various Orders, the Benedictines amongst them.
It entirely depends on the form of disestablishment. When it took place in France in 1905, all buildings in the Republic outside Alsace-Lorraine and Algeria etc became the property of the state, and were then allocated to "associations cultuelle" (associations of worshippers). I can't offhand recall if other property and endowments were nationalized. I doubt if the English republic would want all of these old buildings, and suspect that they would just take the other property and endowments, and leave parishes with their buildings and best wishes in their future endeavours.
This region around Nantes has a strong religious tradition and was the scene of a royalist/Catholic revolt in the 1790s-- some sources suggest up to a third of the population died in the fighting and the massacres and executions afterward, and this has apparently had an impact on local identity. One would hope that this history would not be repeated by the English Republic envisaged by @Bishops Finger.
@Amanda B Reckondwyth
Lead Editor, Mystery Worship
The religious history of the Nantes area is interesting, though, so thank you to @Augustine the Aleut for the background information.
Canadian history is linked with Nantes, with several women's religious orders out of the city, including the Ursulines, whose schools educated the young women of New France for three centuries. As well, the neighbourhood by the river (near the Jules Verne museum) provided refuge for the Acadians who declined to take the oath of allegiance, many of whom ended up in Louisiana. The parish church is dedicated to Saint Anne, patron of Canada.