DN Festival of Light - by Father Daniel Parkinson

On 28th February 1853 the parish church of St George, Doncaster was reduced to rubble by a fire so ferocious that it melted the eight giant metal bells at the top of its tower. Just days later the local residents of the town spoke with one voice in calling for ‘their church’ to be rebuilt. And they put their money where their mouths were and contributed much of the money needed for the building which stands proudly in Doncaster town centre. The Minster, to this day, also stands proudly in this tradition of being a church for all in Doncaster, and beyond; a local symbol of the community, and, we like to think, of the glory of God who is the source of all beauty and goodness.

This powerful story was magnificently and sensitively re-told in the recent ‘Festival of Light’ exhibition by Ed Carter hosted by Doncaster Minster in partnership with creative studio NOVAK and the dedicated team at Right Up Our Street. And for six dark and wet November evenings we were illumined by a display of artistic and technological beauty.

The piece transported us back to that moment in 1853 and the inexorable spread of fire that reduced the Minster to charred remains – complete with sound effects taken from the gurgling radiators in the Minster! The genius of George Gilbert Scott, the architect, was then on display as lines darted about the place, elegantly traced over the finer details and vast spaces of the Minster interior.

One of the things that struck me most about the display was the subtle but unrelenting notes of hope. The destruction and devastation of the fire gave way to a series of upward movements representing the rebuilding project. What we saw before us was the story of a local triumph, the overcoming of loss and despair, and their replacement by hope and beauty.

But what spoke to me most profoundly, and here I am certainly speaking as a priest, was that this upward exertion and ingenuity also gave way to something else: something transcendent, otherworldly. Once the building had been re-built, so to speak, the display paused briefly, only then to pour forth an effusion of brightness, colour and sound. The whole suddenly became much greater than the sum of its parts. This climax of the piece was very moving and articulated the power that local buildings and communities can have when they pursue the common good, and also the fact that when we come together as a community we can participate in something much larger than ourselves.

It was a joy for us at the Minster to host this marvellous event. Not only because it meant working again in partnership with a number of exciting groups promoting the arts and their transformative power in Doncaster, but also it gave us another opportunity to continue in our commitment to be a Minster for the whole town of Doncaster. As with the ‘Museum of the Moon’ last year, it was a delight to welcome people from across the town into the Minster and to share this unique experience with them.

One of the great pleasures for me on these occasions is to stand and talk with people and hear how their stories interconnect with that of the Minster and the town. I’m always surprised by how the setting of the Minster almost gives people permission to open up about subjects they might not ordinarily talk about. And in this sense, the ‘Festival of Light’ not only captured the story of hope and transformation that the re-building project of the 1850s represented, but also further enabled the Minster to be a place of hope and transformation in our own time.