Lottie blogs trip to Peterborough Cathedral and Kingsgate Church.

Philosophy and Ethics trip to Peterborough Cathedral and Kingsgate; 22/6/18

On Friday the 22nd of June, the Year 10 Philosophy and Ethics students had the opportunity to go on a school trip to two Christian places of worship: Peterborough Cathedral, a Church of England cathedral built in the 13th century; and Kingsgate, an incredibly modern community church that focuses on reaching out to people of all ages and spreading the Word of God – also known as evangelism. I’m sure I speak on behalf of everyone when I say that the trip has helped us a considerable amount, by allowing us to experience the different types of church and to see what we’ve been learning in the classroom in an external setting.

First of all, we went to Peterborough Cathedral and both groups took turns to go up the cathedral tower, whilst the other group had a tour of the ground floor. As we were shown up the tower, our tour guides told us stories of the cathedral and also about the architecture of it, which was equally as interesting. After countless spiral staircases and walkways, we eventually reached the top and were very impressed by the incredible view over Peterborough and the surrounding areas. In fact, the day was so clear that we could even manage to spot the tower of Ely Cathedral in the distance, which was particularly interesting for the many members of last year’s Tom’s Midnight Garden cast that were on the trip! We even got to visit the tower where they do bell ringing, which was fascinating because the majority of us had never really seen a bell ringing tower before, or been told how they work.

Then, we returned to the ground floor (much to Mr Jones’ relief) for our second tour of the day, where we were told about the different aspects of the building and their significance. For example, our tour guide told us all about the cathedral’s eagle lectern – it was made to look like an eagle as it is said that they are the only animals that can look directly into the sun, and the sun represents God; it was also facing in an easterly direction, which is where the sun rises each morning, commemorating the resurrection of Christ.

After that, we had the opportunity to ask the priest of the cathedral any questions that we had, which was personally my highlight of the trip. An extremely wide range of questions were asked, ranging from what his views were on single sex marriage all the way to where they get the wine from for communion (admittedly, that was my question). His answers were incredibly thorough and eye opening, and there’s no doubt that we will be using his answers in many of our essays next year!

Finally, we got back into the minibus and headed to Kingsgate church, our second and last destination for the trip. I think that it’s safe to say that we were all surprised as to how different it was from the cathedral, what with its modern layout and high tech prayer auditorium, complete with a drum kit and surround-sound speakers. The youth workers told us all about their programs for all ages, as well as the various different ceremonies that take place each week.

Overall, the trip helped us all massively by broadening our understanding and knowledge of topics in our Religious Studies course, as well as it being genuinely interesting to find out more about different churches and the lives of the people who work within them.

By Lottie Pike, Year 10