Lord Windsor visits site of proposed Christian heritage centre at Stonyhurst

Lord Nicholas with curator Jan Graffius

On the feast of Candlemas, 2 February, Lord Nicholas Windsor visited the site which has been designated to house a national Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst College. The Centre will tell the story of the coming of Christianity to Britain, the narrative of the following 2,000 years, and the contribution which the Christian faith has made to the nation.

It will house some of the many important items of Catholic history which are held at Stonyhurst and make them accessible to a much wider audience, including children in Britain's more than 2,000 voluntary aided Catholic schools.

The Centre will use modern methods of interpretation and there will be a study centre for scholars. A registered Charity was formed towards the end of last year and Mr.Ilyas Khan is spearheading the fund-raising as Chairman of the Capital Appeal.

Among the project's other patrons are Field Marshall, the Lord Guthrie, the Rt Hon Ann Widdecombe DSG, Baroness Caroline Cox, MPs Frank Field, Bill Cash and Nigel Evans, Cardinals Cormac Murphy O'Connor and Christoph Schönborn, OP, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the Jesuit Provincial, Fr.Dermot Preston SJ and the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, Lord Shuttleworth. The project has received an Apostolic Blessing from Pope Benedict XVI.

After his tour of the Collections to be housed in the Christian Heritage Centre, Lord Nicholas attended the College's annual Candlemas Procession and the Vigil Mass celebrated in the College Chapel by Fr John Twist SJ. The Stonyhurst Schola Cantorum sang Byrd's Mass in Four Parts.