Inscribed on a tablet set into the face of the ruined tower of Coventry’s old cathedral, reduced to a burnt-out shell in the German bombing of the city during the night of 14 November 1940, are verses from the Old Testament prophecy of Haggai: ‘The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace …’ In the
Coventry Antiphon, composed on Christmas Day 1961 for the service of dedication of Basil Spence’s new cathedral in May 1962, Howells frames these words with a verse from Isaiah 56: ‘My house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.’
from notes by Paul Andrews © 2011
