wfn.org | 20TH CENTURY MARTYRS REMEMBERED AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY

[Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>]

Oct. 31, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.10.5.5]

ENGLAND: 20TH CENTURY MARTYRS REMEMBERED AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY

(ACNS) The West Front of Westminster Abbey in London has had niches
standing empty since it was built in the late Middle Ages.  On the
completion of the restoration of the West Front in 1992, it was decided
that these niches should be filled with appropriate statutes.  In
addition to six statutes of traditional saints and four of allegorical
figures representing the values for which martyrs have died are 10
remaining niches.  These will be filled with statues of those who by
their deaths have testified to the cost of Christian faith and
discipleship in this century.  Between them they will cover the period
from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 to the persecution of the Church
in Latin America. They will be drawn from every continent of the world
and from many denominations and will include Martin Luther King,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Archbishop Janani Luwum of Uganda. The twentieth
century has seen more martyrdoms for the Christian faith than any other
period of history.  It is estimated that there were more Christian
martyrs under Stalin than in the the great persecutions under the
Roman Empire in the first three centuries of the Church. The statues for
Westminster Abbey are being made by a team of architectural sculptors,
who have already carved a larger number of pieces of statuary in the
Abbey.  They will be unveiled on 9 July 1998, in the presence of the
Archbishop of Canterbury and Church leaders from many parts of the
world.