Saint Columb’s Cathedral

St. Columb’s Cathedral was built between 1628 and 1633 by the Honourable The Irish Society. It was the first cathedral to be built by the Anglican church in the British ‘Isles after the Reformation. It remained in its original structure until 1861, when the entire inside of the cathedral was re-modelled. Later, in 2011, the entire Cathedral was restored. The cathedral contains a large display of artifacts from the Siege of Derry such as old flags and the original keys and locks to the city gates (https://www.stcolumbscathedral.org).

The Cathedral has been known locally and internationally for its work with promoting unity among Christian churches. It has also put in a lot of effort to work towards building bridges within the community of Derry after The Troubles took place. Because Derry has been a city that has been divided between Protestants and Catholics, St. Columb’s has taken steps to encourage the mending of broken bonds between these two groups. This is important to the people of Derry because they are actively working to build peace into the community. To have a church that is trying to help build bridges between the Protestants and Catholics is extremely important in the healing and peace-making process (https://www.stcolumbscathedral.org). 

When another student and I attended a communion service at St. Columb’s we were able to talk with a local from Derry that was actually Catholic but had gone to the Protestant church for that morning’s service. He told us that the former minister of St. Columb’s had just recently passed away so he had come to the service to pay his respects. This was very interesting to us because we thought that Catholics would never attend Protestant churches. However, it was very powerful to see that the church really had been taking huge strides in making the cathedral a place for all to come, no matter their religious background.