The Upkeep of Cathedrals
SIR,—Is it too much to suggest a confusion of issues in Mr. Bacon's mind ? Not only cathedrals, which may claim the support of a diocese, but many parish churches are national treasures from the historical and architectural standpoint. Their maintenance for spiritual purposes—six months ago appeals were out for £2,000,000—represents an intolerable burden on the Church, whose primary function is not the preservation of ancient monuments. There is no more shame in asking the St,ate to bear a share of the cost of maintaining these buildings, which must inevitably attract visitors who do not seek them primarily for a religious purpose, than there is in having our ruined abbeys under the care of the Office of Works. Indeed, far better to ask now, rather than when they have reached the ruined state to which many must inevitably come.
The matter is too urgent to brook delay. Until many more "churchmen, like Mr. Bacon, develop as great a sense of proportion in this matter as the Dean of Winchester, so long will the Church be crippled in its task, and so long will there be insufficient money to build even a few of the small, but not necessarily ugly, churches needed for the primary purpose of promoting the glory and worship of God in the new towns to which he refers.—Yours faithfully, CHARLES E. JONES. Lismore, Warwick Road, Hale, Cheshire.
Previous page
