A series of Lent lectures and Study Days open to all, led by Canon Professor Nicholas Sagovsky, Westminster Abbey
For those who wish, an associated MA assignment giving 15 credits is available (registration fee payable).
More information from Gwen Shaw, Projects Officer, 020 7654 4823
Westminster Abbey has a unique place in the life of the nation. Edward the Confessor’s Abbey, of which little remains, was replaced by Henry III in the thirteenth century with an even more magnificent building. In these monastic churches the monks of Westminster prayed daily for five hundred years. This daily prayer continues today. For nearly a thousand years Westminster Abbey has also been the coronation church. It contains the coronation chair made for Edward I and used at all coronations since. The Abbey is the burial place of kings and queens, the most prominent being Saint Edward himself. It contains the tombs of the humble and the great, from the Clerk of the Works at the Royal Palace, Geoffrey Chaucer, to scientists such as Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. In this series of lectures, distinguished lecturers will examine the extraordinary history and identity of Westminster Abbey. Those who have the responsibility for the Abbey today will reflect on its present and future role in the life of the nation.
13 February 6pm
Westminster Abbey and Benedictine Life
Lecturer: Canon Nicholas Sagovsky
Study day: 16 February 10.45am – 2.45pm
Edward the Confessor’s Abbey
Guest Lecturer: Dr Warwick Rodwell, Consultant Archaeologist to Westminster Abbey and Visiting Professor, Reading University
Wednesday 20 February 6pm
Henry III and Westminster: the Making of the Capital
Guest Lecturer: Professor David Carpenter, King’s College London
Wednesday 27 February 6pm
Three Abbots of Westminster
Lecturer: Canon Nicholas Sagovsky
Wednesday 5 March 6pm
Three Deans of Westminster
Lecturer: Canon Nicholas Sagovsky
Wednesday 12 March 6pm
Coronations of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
Guest Lecturer: Sir Roy Strong
Study day: Saturday 15 March 10.45am-2.45pm
The Contemporary Abbey
Guest Lecturers to include:
The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster