The Gothic current church is from Henry 3rd reign (died 1272). The Abbey before that was the Norman Romanesque church of King Edward (later beatified as St Edward the Confessor) finished in the year of the Norman conquest 1066.

I too am Catholic - however I would love to attend a service in this wonderful House of God.

and this is us singing in St. Paul's in 1995 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rMygiKWIldO0Ymw.html

From Canada: if you love history, architecture, and music, you must go back to Europe and UK and Ireland for these treasured buildings and traditions. I feel at home there because my origins are from Dorset and Ireland and Scotland. Music is my profession, and history is an obsession. What a wonderful video. Thank you so much.

I mean if you did the colonists destroyed it thoroughly. 60000 years of oral tradition destroyed. That's like the library of alexandria burned twice.

Well put.

Thank you: Wonderful presentation. All blessings to you.

This channel is part of my daily bread.. enough said.

Standing on the bones. It was beautiful. I'm an honorary (American) docent of the Pyx Chamber. 🤗 Only given the shadow position due to my ebullience about every corner of the wondrous buildings.

Something out of our lost history is what these huge churches are, these were not built at the times told by the people in those times, completely impossible. These buildings were not religious buildings at the time they were built, there were no religions back then, not like today, these buildings that housed healing properties and capable of what is now known as free energy. People are so brain washed when they walk into the Abby that was built for far larger humans can't understand why they look so tiny in this giants building.!

@Volkfire The size and style of this Abbey church simply followed the gothic structures of the time. Henry III rebuilt the Abbey very much in the style of Amiens Cathedral in Northern France, and employed French architects to build it. It was a deliberate attempt to build an impressive coronation venue. Westminster Abbey still remains to this day in the personal possession of the Sovereign.

@@ds1868 This, I did not know regarding the 'personal possession' bit. Fascinating!

ds1868, the Abbey is the property of the Anglican Church. As a “royal peculiar,” its dean reports directly to the Sovereign rather than the Archbishop of Canterbury, and it is the parish church of the Sovereign, but not his or her personal property.

Part 3 is Christmas-themed, so if you have a little more patience... (!)

Oof

@@ArchiveofRecordedChurchMusic Don't know if you know about the Crypt of Ripon Cathedral being the longest surviving in the country? :) Also take your time don't worry about it would be great to see that if it's not been uploaded already, take care and nice work! (infact no scratch that great work!)

Not an abbey as there is no longer an abbot. It is a misnomer.

Weird, right?

Of course, why not. The Church of England had its basis in the Catholic church.

The answer is yes. Having said that it rarely "feels" the same when Catholic music is sung in Protestant places although the Abbey was of course a Benedictine foundation. At least it survived the catastrophe of the reformation

The director of the choir at the Abbey when filmed in 2012 and still there Mr. O'Donnell shown with the choir boys is Roman Catholic. This Abbey choir sang at St. Peter's in Rome at the express wish of Pope (now emeritus) Benedict XVI at an important mass. Allegri's Miserere is sung in concert halls, in college chapels open to students of many Christian faiths and in high church places such as Anglican and probably Lutheran as well. Now obviously low church Protestants would not sing it (Pentecostals and Baptists and Evangelicals) because it is in Latin, and associated with Rome. So, it depends on the church and the denomination.

@@taiscealai Please explain why Catholic music 'feels' different sung in Protest places. I am an atheist but love the historical implications of religion and politics.

@@jackmorrison7379 O'Donnell, A Catholic of Irish descent? They understand choral music so well. As do the Welsh and English. Scots too, probably.

Many of mine too, and buried

The church of England isn't a million miles away from the old Catholic traditions. You are quite correct

Anglican..half and half. Not radical like late King Edward Vl (1547-1553)nor late Queen Mary l (1553-1558) The middle ground.. Late Queen Elizabeth 1- smart (1558-1603) Sevices spoken in English and the singing can be sung in Latin....(shugs) either way the middle ground.

the services are generally conducted in English (or, more correctly, in the vernacular); although at certain collegiate churches associated with the universities, where the scholars know Latin, they may be conducted in Latin. In any event, Latin church music remains a large part of Anglican liturgical life.

gail handschuh, no, services are almost entirely in English and for centuries Latin has been frowned on until recently. If you actually watch the entire three parts of the documentary this is, in fact, mentioned in the second part of the series.

@@inkyguy The Latin Book of Common prayer actually was used by many English college chapels until 19th

Oh please! St Peter did NOT found Westminster Abbey.

Malheureusement, la BBC ne l'a pas diffusé avec des sous-titres en langues étrangères.

Due to health concerns, some people require gluten-free Jesus meat.

I think the reason you haven’t heard of any is perhaps because these sort of precautions are in place

Yeah. To all intents and purposes it is, and it’s difficult to differentiate between the two traditions in an aesthetic sense. It was largely a political reformation though obviously papal authority or infallibility and transubstantiation was the cut off point . It definitely wasn’t in keeping with the kind of sola scriptura reformation that happened across the rest of Northern Europe.

@@dynamo2754 Westminster Abbey is High Church Anglican rather than Anglo-Catholic (Roman Catholic Lite). This style of Churchmanship gave birth to the High Church Evangelical Anglicans or Methodists. Though it uses sung liturgies and similar to Roman Catholic worship style it is also very much Calvinist with a dash of Lutheranism in doctrine.

Let's not. Let's keep a little bit of tradition and not have diversity and inclusivity everywhere.

The Abbey is bound by precisely worded statutes that encompass the composition of its choir, the manner of its upkeep and the frequency of its contribution to sung offices. The addition of girls would require the dilution or alteration of those statutes. It should be noted especially that the Abbey Choir School is not equipped with facilities to board and lodge girls alongside boys; indeed, experience in other choral foundations suggests that the optimum age of a girl chorister for the Abbey would be higher than that of the optimum (and biologically necessary) optimum age of the boys, thus it would be necessary to expand the school to accommodate older girls alongside younger boys, though there is clearly finite space in the Abbey Precincts that would preclude this. The Abbey does welcome visiting choirs to sing during times when its own choir is on leave, and many of those include girls and women. The Abbey can also call upon professional women singers to make up a choir for special occasions or emergencies, so it cannot be said that the Abbey opposes female choristers or would exclude them absolutely.

You won't be doing Christmas then?😎

You have no idea what the building's purpose is then?

That’s the building’s purpose 💀

Without the "religious claptrap" the building would not exist.

Bit like saying the British Museum would be beautiful if not for all the historical artefacts, or the National Gallery would be wonderful if it wasn’t for all the paintings.🙄