Knowledge Drop: Decoding Sacred Symbols with Richard Taylor

Each year in September many historic churches, chapels and meeting houses participate in open‑house events, allowing access to hidden spaces usually closed. This year, take the opportunity to discover their hidden messages from the comfort of your home.

Join us from 1-2pm on Tuesday 9, Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 September 2025 for each of these online events. With the £25 Series Ticket, you'll have access to all three sessions, including the chance to watch back the recording of each.

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This event will raise funds for the work of the National Churches Trust, supporting churches, chapels and meeting houses across the UK.

In a rare series of three captivating online talks, Britain’s leading symbologist Richard Taylor will guide you through the rich world of imagery found in our sacred buildings so you can see them with a new understanding and a sharper eye for hidden meaning.

Whether you’re a curious visitor, heritage enthusiast or lifelong churchgoer, these one-hour sessions will transform the way you see stained glass, carvings, wall paintings, and architectural details. Learn how to read the centuries-old visual language used to express theology, hope, power and mystery.

These are not dry history lectures - they are vivid journeys into meaning, symbolism and story, filled with insights from Richard’s decades of work as a writer and broadcaster (How to Read a Church, BBC’s Churches: How to Read Them, Songs of Praise). Don’t miss the chance to see familiar things with completely new eyes.

What you’ll learn:

• A toolkit for decoding architectural and symbolic elements
• Understanding of how England’s sacred spaces reflect shared beliefs, politics and local identity
• Insight into the stories conveyed through craftsmanship and iconography that most visitors overlook
• Practical tips for visiting churches in September to spot key features for yourself

✝ Session 1: Jesus, God, and the Trinity - Depicting the Divine

How do you show the invisible? This session delves into the ways Christian artists and architects through the ages have tried to represent the divine in visual form. Discover the meaning behind the crucifix, the lamb, the eye in the triangle, and other rich theological imagery. Learn how depictions of Christ have shifted through centuries, from shepherd to suffering man to risen king, and how architecture itself was used to express sacred hierarchy and heavenly order.

🕊 Session 2: The Saints - Symbols of Faith and Courage

Who’s that holding a wheel? Why is there a scallop shell on the altar? This session explores how saints have been portrayed in church art and what their symbols, often surprisingly graphic, really mean. From dragons underfoot to arrows in the chest, saints’ stories were told visually to inspire, warn and comfort. You’ll learn how to identify key saints, decode their attributes, and uncover why their images mattered so much to medieval and modern congregations alike.

Of course, no figure appears more often - or more richly symbolised - than Mary, whose presence in art blends divine motherhood with royal imagery, theological mystery, and human tenderness.

🐑 Session 3: Creatures, Trees, and Stars - Nature in Sacred Art

From doves and lions to oak leaves and stars, the natural world is alive in church imagery. But these are more than decoration, they carry layered meanings drawn from scripture, folklore and medieval bestiaries.

In this final session, Richard Taylor reveals how birds, beasts, flowers, and even weather patterns were used symbolically to express spiritual truths. You’ll never look at a carved bench end or a painted ceiling the same way again.