Sydney Cathedral

	St Andrews Cathedral, Sydney

Young cathedrals are somewhat of a rarity in Britain - in some of the newer diosceses such as Chelmsford, they have simply taken the parish church and called it a cathedral - which is cheating, to my mind! That is why I was so interested to visit St Andrews cathedral in the heart of Sydney during the time between my arrival and that of the relative who was meeting me.

St Andrews has recently undergone a fairly extensive rennovation and work on the exterior is still going on. However the interior is splendid and many of the monuments on its walls are interesting in their own right.

What was perhaps most interesting was the contrast between the gleaming glass and concrete of the modern buildings which surround the cathedral and the mock-gothic spires and pinnacles of the brick cathedral. Australia may be brash and thrusting, but in religious matters there is a good deal of conservatism.

There is also a good deal of openness about religion. After taking these pictures my sister "shouted" me (a curious expression meaning that she paid the bill!) to dinner in a Thai restaurant in the nearby Queen Victoria Building. I was intrigued to see a girl at one of the tables reading her Bible while she manoeuvred her chopsticks - and I'm not sure which impressed me the more: her skill with her implements or her readiness to read the Bible in public.

Just outside the QVB, as the Australians call it, there was a tramp reading a Bible, the young businessman next to me on the train was reading his, and a middle-aged woman soaking up the sun in Hyde Park during her lunch break was - guess what - reading her Bible.