Singapore Night Festival 2017 - Cathedral of the Good Shepherd

In the second part of my previous double post on Singapore Night Festival 2017, I mentioned visiting the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. Here are the photos taken during that brief visit.

Singapore Night Festival 2017 at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. — Angelic choir lights display in the courtyard.

As I wrote in the previous post, the cathedral isn’t listed as one of the performance or display venues of the festival. On the cathedral’s website, though, it’s stated that on the weekends of the festival, an event titled simply as Pray for Peace – for Singapore, our home and the world would be hosted.

Other than the lighting of votive candles for peace, hour-long tours would also be given of the cathedral, which is both Singapore’s oldest and the Mother Church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore. I didn’t attend the tour, not knowing of it beforehand. I did, however, had a great time touring the nave, which underwent a major restoration not too long ago. Lastly, allow me to highlight that I have not been in here for ages. If memory serves me right, the previous time I entered was in the mid-90s.

Cathedral of the Good Shepherd - Pray for Peace August 2017 — The candles were lined on the ground to form words. Plenty of church helpers were around to help visitors with them.

Votive candles at Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, Singapore. — My first impression was that the candle lighting was for the victims of the heinous Barcelona attacks, which happened hours earlier. But this couldn’t have been since the Cathedral scheduled tours as well.

Cathedral of the Good Shepherd Nave. — The nave. With the signature Doric columns of the cathedral.

I have something “sinful” to reveal, sort of.

I love visiting churches, even though I’m not of the Christian faith.

In short, I appreciate churches for their architecture, art, and ambience. When it comes to Singaporean churches though, I have never been keen, for the simple reason they all feel kinda … straight-forward to me?

Now, I know how this sounds. I am well-aware that cathedrals and churches are not meant to be art galleries too, they are sanctuaries of worship. Still … you know what I mean? What pleasantly surprised me, thus, was that the restored Cathedral of the Good Shepherd felt to have the perfect balance of simplicity and elegance. It’s not large, it’s streamlined, so to speak. At the same time, it’s also tastefully furnished and adorned. Standing in the nave, I was vaguely reminded of my visits to Europe’s great cathedrals. I also experienced several moments of blissful, quiet spirituality.