And I have noted the floors of the Cathedral have been renewed and Bishop Crispian has created a burial chamber for the next nine Bishops of Portsmouth. But key to the restoration is the High Altar with the great rood hanging over the sanctuary and it is there, righly, that our eyes turn. The Altar is, indeed, the focus because it is here that the Paschal Sacrifice is celebrated. This Cathedral is a place of prayer in which we all share. The Cathedral is a house of prayer.
Prayer is valid.
But there is one other symbol in the Cathedral that is unique to it. The Church loves to derive her symbolism from the common things of life. She seizes on the essential sign, the essential picture, and makes them her own. I remember at the beginning of the Second World War, when I was a small boy, I lived with my grandparents for some months, and when I came back from school I always knew if my grandfather was at home because his hat was hanging on the hat-stand, his stick was in the corner and I knew he would be sitting in his familiar chair. It is in this place, in a very real sense, that the Bishop is most at home.