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York Minister, United Kingdom, 2018

If you look down on York Minster from above, you’ll see that it is designed in the shape of a cross. The crossing, as seen from inside the Minster, comes at the intersection of the nave running from the west entrance, the quire behind the screen running to the east, the north and south transepts. Above the crossing is the tower.

Hanging down from the tower is a huge cross, draped with the white cloth symbollising the resurrected Christ. We see the cross from directly underneath so that only the horizontal dimension is clearly seen.

Crossings

I wander into York Minster,
standing under heaven
at the intersection of the north and south transepts
between the nave and the quire
between the commoners and the consecrated
between the secular and the sacred.

An upward gaze into the soaring tower.
The white draped cross suspended over me.

In this place, in this space
I am at the meeting place of heaven and earth.
Where the cross becomes a crossing
Where all my nouns can become verbs
Where my being meets doing
Where my living meets dying

In this blessed tension,
in this sacred contradiction,
the cross takes wing.

In this centre,
Within this architecture of integrity
I genuflect.

Crossings 1  8 x 8

Crossings 2 12 x 12

Crossings 3 8 x 12 (Diamond)

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Les Miller is the former Religious Education Coordinator of the York Catholic District School Board and the recipient of the CARFLEO 2009 Archbishop Pocock Award for Excellence in Religious Education. He teaches at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and is a well-respected presenter and workshop facilitator.

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