Faith Museum opens in the north east England on 7 October
RELIGIOUS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – The Faith Museum, telling the story of faith in Britain over 6,000 years, opens to the public in Auckland Castle, on 7 October.
It is housed in the 14th century wing of the castle and an adjoining 21st century extension.
The museum has been developed over ten years, funded by a £12.4 million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and is part of The Auckland Project, in Bishops Auckland, with historic buildings, gardens, galleries and a heritage railway.
The Project says the museum “does not seek to force a definition of faith but rather invites visitors to consider how people across history have described and demonstrated it” and all visitors are welcome, whether they identify as religious, spiritual, or neither. The Guardian reports that a campaign has been launched to bring a 16th-century tapestry commissioned by Henry VIII from Spain to be the centrepiece of the museum. It depicts Saint Paul directing the burning of “the heathen books” and is “effectively the birth certificate of the Church of England”, according to the curator.