It’s too late to get tickets for Canterbury Cathedral’s silent disco tonight – as with last night’s event, they sold out long ago – but you can still join the orderly prayer vigil against this caricature of the contemporary Church of England. Some 750 clubbers are expected to attend each of the four events over two days, to dance in the nave to hits from Britney Spears, the Spice Girls and Eminem. They’ll party the night away not far away from where Thomas a Becket was murdered in 1170 as he clung to a pillar; his brains and blood mixed on the floor. His shrine is somewhere nearby. Oh, and alcohol will be available for revellers.
This martyrdom site was once the second most popular pilgrimage destination in the Middle Ages. Now it’s the setting for what the Cathedral authorities insist is not a ‘rave in the nave’. Whatever; it does make you wonder about the wisdom of the CofE retaining the property of the Catholic Church at the Reformation, given this is what they do with it.
First 2 silent disco shows complete at the beautiful Canterbury Cathedral with over 1500 in attendance. Same again Friday night! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/ck6DXLr78T
— James Levett (@iamjameslevett) February 9, 2024
Naturally and inevitably, the Cathedral authorities are saying that this is an opportunity to reach out to young people and raise funds for the preservation of this historic building. The event, they insist, will be ‘respectful’, though if you could tell me how, I’d be interested. It would be better to let the rain come through the roof than allow the house of God – as it is, even under the aegis of the CofE – to be turned into a bloody disco. The authorities want to preserve the building: as what? Certainly not as a church, as the seat of the primate of England (that’s Justin Welby, of course). Presumably he was privy to this decision to host this disco. Welby is a decent, affable individual, but I’d have thought your first job as Archbishop of Canterbury would be to keep your Cathedral sacrosanct, even if you are, like him, an evangelical.
As for the Dean of Canterbury, the Very Rev David Monteith, his almost parodic observation was this:
‘Whilst dancing of all different kinds has happened in the Cathedral over the centuries, there are many different views on the secular and the sacred. Our 90s-themed silent disco will be appropriate to and respectful of the Cathedral – it is categorically not a ‘rave in the nave’ – but I appreciate that some will never agree that dancing and pop music have a place within cathedrals.’
Dr Monteith added: ‘Cathedrals have always been part of community life in a way much wider than their prime focus as centres of Christian worship.’
Cathedrals were indeed once a focus of the local community, and during Canterbury’s heyday as a pilgrim destination, it no doubt made a killing out of flogging pilgrim badges. But I can confidently say that never in its pre-Reformation history did we see anything comparable to this. Not ever. If this is how the CofE thinks it can attract young people, it deserves its plummeting attendance. Norwich Cathedral tried to be relevant too a couple of years ago with an actual helter-skelter in the nave of one of the most beautiful medieval buildings in England, and did that bring the young back to services? Nope. It did not.
I have seen young people in churches, and what brought them in was an atmosphere of devout reverence. Often this meant silent prayer, devotion, or the straightforward business of worship. That is, after all, the point of the Cathedral. It’s not to raise money for its own preservation. It’s to worship God. If the CofE can’t respect its Cathedral, can we have it back?
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