Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, Wrexham

Introduction

The church was designated the Pro-Cathedral of the Diocese of Menevia in 1907. The interior has an Early English arcade of four bays, with clustered shafts with fillets and hood moulds forming trefoils between each arch.

Architecture and furnishings

The church has a gallery in the western bay, carried on chamfered timber piers. The church has a wagon roof with wall posts on corbels to principal trusses. The chancel arch has clustered shafts to a deep moulded chancel arch, with painted figures of angels on gilded ground set in shallow panels over the chancel arch. The church has a massive trefoiled east window in the chancel, comprising a rose window with a band of quatrefoil lights below.

Stained glass in aisle windows form a series of memorial windows, none signed or dated, but their style is reminiscent of that of Kempe and Tower, and they are probably late nineteenth to early twentieth century. The northwest window is possibly earlier, a neo-medieval style incorporating a mosaic of fragments. There is a memorial to Ellan Thompson (died 1854) in the side chapel of the outer north aisle, with a recumbent effigy on an arched panelled tomb-chest with low-reliefs.

Parish life

The cathedral has a Cathedral Choir, and the Folk Group, organists and cantors contribute music. During Lent the parish celebrates the Way of the Cross in the Cathedral and Coedpoeth, and parishioners have walked the Way of the Cross in Pant Asaph. The cathedral celebrates an annual Makhel Mass, which gathers the congregation's cultural diversity with food and entertainment. The SVP group supports the isolated and vulnerable in the parish. The cathedral celebrates an annual Mass for the Sick, an annual Marriage Mass, and an annual Legal Mass.