Exhibition: Vestment and Flower Festival: The Play's the Thing

St Mary's church will explore the theme of "liturgy as theatre" as we host a Festival of Flowers and Vestments to celebrate its 150th anniversary.

The church will be cleared of pews and filled with spectacular flower displays alongside an exhibition of historic floral-themed vestments, which are worn by the clergy throughout the religious year. These include sumptuous brocades, silks, satins, gold-embroidered textiles and rare pre-Reformation garments from the 15th century.

The festival will examine how theatre, with its playful language of colour, costume and metaphor, informs our richly expressive Anglo-Catholic services.

It will also convey how flowers, from lily-of-the-valley to roses and hyssop, allude to Biblical teachings and express a profound sense of the sacred.