Coventry Cathedral Nevill Francis,
Malcolm Hifi, L. C. M. Lockhart, Susanne Hughes, J. D. Johns
The Monarchy A lun Davies, P. Davis Traveller's Hardship D. C. B. Swinden Plans for Cambridge Reuben Heller Writing David Diringer BR W. B. M. McBride Sitting Down in Moscow C. B. Sweet The Cameronians Anthony J. Dorrity Playing it Dirty A Serving Officer in Cyprus Public Opinion Polls P. 1. Bolton
COVENTRY CATHEDRAL
SIR,—The trouble about Coventry Cathedral is not that it is modern. The trouble is that it is extremely old-fashioned. It is not sham-Gothic, it is espresso- bar Gothic and it is as ephemeral as they will prove to be. It belongs to the world of the electric guitar and pop songs. Ihe only surprising thing is that for the first broadcast communion service the music was so clearly that old favourite Jangler in G flat_
At the Reformation the Church of England intended the altar to stand in the body of the Church and there is a growing agreement between the two main parties of Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals that this is the right place for it and the celebrant should stand facing west.
Coventry had a golden opportunity of reconcilia- tion between the two Anglican parties and of showing the way for a true liturgical revival. They have missed it, and it has been left to the Roman Catholics in Liverpool to set out to build a cathedral which, whilst plain or even ugly outside, will at least, inside, be what the Anglican reformers wanted and what liturgical Anglicans want today.
NEVILL FRANCIS
29 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, Suffolk
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