Pope John Paul's funeral marked

Big television screen so people can watch pope's funeral

People from across eastern England have come together at cathedrals and churches to mark the funeral of Pope John Paul II using television links.

A giant screen in front of the altar at St John's Cathedral in Norwich allowed people of many different faiths to watch the requiem mass from Rome.

At the Anglican Peterborough Cathedral people of all denominations watched the proceedings together.

Hundreds at Northampton Cathedral saw the funeral on a giant screen.

Canon Norman Smith said: "We all gathered together to support one another.

"Watching together with the support of other people's prayers and love helps a great deal."

Events open to all

A requiem mass will be celebrated in the cathedral on Friday night at 1930 BST.

Fr David Jennings from St Peter and All Souls Church in Peterborough said it was a great privilege to see the funeral at the city's cathedral where staff and clergy had created a unique and catholic occasion.

"It is a sign of the growing ecumenical dialogue between churches in the city."

The director of the Roman Catholic national shrine to Mary, the mother of Jesus, at Walsingham in West Norfolk, will also hold a special mass on Friday evening.

It is open to people of all denominations and is expected to attract pilgrims from the Catholic and Anglican shrines as well as visitors from as far afield as Peterborough and Cambridge.

Organisers in Rome said that the funeral was one of the largest television events in history attracting an audience measured in billions of people across the world.