CHURCHES AND ABBEYS

[jihfadiuh]

The other week i was at a catholic funeral (not catholic myself) and was watching the priest do his thing with the various sacred relics like burning the incense, drinking the wine from a special cup, the bread was in a special cup etc, i noticed some of these things were kept in a gold looking box at the back, there were a few gold looking candle sticks, one that held the easter candle (obviously none of them actually gold), the place looked nice but i couldnt help but think of how it would have once looked and got me thinking that i dont think ive seen any church 'as it was' so to speak,i know abbeys had their gold and silver taken by henry but what happened to churches? i visited selby abbey not long ago, it was nice to see an abbey in use because i had only ever seen kirkstall abbey, but even at selby abbey there were carvings missing from their niches, religious relics that had seen better days and some showing signs of rust. i love these buildings and i do like to see the worn stones or relics and think of what they have seen but is it only westminster abbey that is adorned in such finery or are there other buildings particularly churches and in yorkshire that are similar?