You may have been lucky enough to catch ‘Britain’s Great Cathedrals’ on Sky Arts recently. Yes, full of the usual history and architecture but six cathedrals as seen through the eyes of an Instagram-friendly young clergyman called Pat Allerton, very much the 21st Century parson. Allerton pays tribute to the architects and crafts people, but has a clear idea of what a Cathedral’s function might be in the social media age. Firstly, the building encapsulates the identity of its town or city, secondly it provides a place for safe (and usually free) public assembly, above and beyond conventional public worship. But as a man of the media age, Pat identifies the quiet spaces that always exist even in the busiest Cathedral, quiet spaces that are at a premium when we are surrounded by actual and digital noise of increasing volume. The six Cathedrals featured are all spaces for authentic emotion - joy, fear, sadness, wonder - along with the sheer enjoyment of corporate worship. So it is useful to have those functions re-affirmed in our seemingly secular age.
We can now take this knowledge with us as we consider how to fund the re-imagining of our sacred building. This will be challenging. The Anglican Church is rich in fixed assets but income is limited. And that is even before we consider competing calls for Christian giving; natural disasters, famine, homelessness - all investments that align with the Gospels. And we are inclined to be reticent if ‘shoulder-tapped’ by our fundraising teams. But this is necessary work as those trapped in the crypt of Christchurch Cathedral will remind us. Our community has legal responsibilities which cannot be avoided.
Look on this as an opportunity. Our end of Victoria Street needs a makeover, and folk will notice if a band of Christians lead that. The people of Paris, Coventry, Dresden, and Christchurch will be alongside us. They will all say that a Cathedral is more than just another building, more than a club for a set of believers. A Cathedral lends identity to a city and its community.
These are straightened times - not all of us have money to spare, but our church community has sufficient talent to turn our time, our work, our imagination, into money. Or we can buy tickets for live music of which there is surely much more to come.
This is an opportunity to tell Hamilton who we really are - let’s make the most of it.
