Lord Mayor of Belfast signs the C S Lewis book at St Anne’s
Belfast Cathedral is marking the 50th anniversary of the death of CS Lewis with a new book which chronicles reflections on the impact of Lewis’ work by the general public.
The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Máirtin Ó Muilleoir, is pictured right, signing the book and below with the Very Revd John Mann, Dean of Belfast, and Mr Paul Gilmore, Librarian at the cathedral.
In an event entitled ‘CS Lewis’ Chapter One,’ the Cathedral has invited people to visit St Anne’s and record how they have been influenced by the renowned author in a specially commissioned leather–bound book.
CS Lewis was a citizen of the city of Belfast – born 10 years after Belfast received its city charter from Queen Victoria in 1888. He has lasting links with St Anne’s Cathedral as his uncle Sir William Ewart and several of the Ewart family are commemorated in the Cathedral.
But Paul stressed this event is about Lewis in his own right, as a storyteller, scholar and Christian apologist.
“We have called it CS Lewis’ Chapter One because Lewis saw death as beginning ‘Chapter One of that great story’ and this fits with the theme of this event because it is not simply about remembering someone who died the same day as JFK and Aldous Huxley. It is about celebrating his enduring legacy and that is why people are invited to contribute a line or an essay, a comment or a quotation, which captures for them how Lewis’ legacy has enriched their lives and fed their imagination.”
The book has been crafted to resemble a leather bound book referred to in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. (‘…a whole series of rooms that led into each other and were lined with books – most of them very old books and some bigger than a Bible in a church’).
Paul said that all ages are welcome to come and write in the book ‘because all ages read Lewis’.
The book will be available to sign for a year.