Bikers at cathedral for bishop's safety blessing

Motorcyclists gathered at a cathedral on Sunday to be blessed by the Bishop of Exeter ahead of the summer motorcycling season.

The Blessing of the Bikes event was organised by keen biker and vicar Matthew Cashmore and was a a first for Exeter Cathedral.

Dozens of people parked their motorcycles outside the 15th Century building to receive a holy water blessing on their bikes from the Right Reverend Dr Mike Harrison.

Cashmore said the event was about building community between bikers and Christians who both had the common ability to "welcome anybody".

Cashmore, the vicar in Bovey Tracey and Newton Abbot, said bikers and Christians "very much fit together".

"Bikers pray more than Christians I think, especially when we go round corners and there's a wet patch in the middle of the road, he said.

"We both have an ability to welcome anybody.

"Anybody who is on two wheels is immediately welcomed into any gang of bikers and that's exactly what we model as Christians.

"My hope is people come to Exeter Cathedral with their bikes, perhaps with questions, perhaps on the edge of faith and see what what it means to be blessed by God."

Former chorister Abraham Saxon, who took his Triumph motorcycle to the event, said it was about "celebrating faith" and the "brotherhood which motorcycling brings".

After the ceremony Cashmore said it was "amazing" to hear the bikes revving as they were leaving.

"(It was) a joyful noise, but not necessarily the noise you would expect from the cathedral," he said.

"I was astonished how many people came into the cathedral. It was beautiful to have the normal congregation mingling with the bikers and inviting them in."

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