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A proper ground to grow wise in: a sermon for the Friends of Wimborne Minster, preached at the Minster on Sunday 7 July 2013 by the Vicar of Sherborne, Canon Eric Woods DL From our first lesson, in the Prophecy of Haggai: ‘I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.’ [Haggai 2.7-9] It is a great honour to be invited to preach at this annual service for the Friends of Wimborne Minster. Your association was founded in 1945, which means that for once Sherborne Abbey can claim to have stolen a march on you, as our Friends were founded fifteen years earlier, in 1930. I have yet to find any such association which is older, though no doubt they exist. But it was also in 1930 that the Friends of Chester Cathedral held their inaugural meeting. The inspiration behind it came from the Dean, Frank Selwyn Bennett, who by then had been at Chester for ten years. Until his arrival the cathedral had been rather remote from the life of the city. Dean Bennett set himself to change all that. In particular, in common with all cathedrals and many greater churches in those days, Chester had for many years charged a fairly stiff entry fee. Bennett insisted it should be open to all and free to all. And he believed passionately that there should be a ministry of welcome at the cathedral, every day of the year. He wrote ‘We need to get rid of the idea that the primary business of a cathedral staff is to act as policemen and showmen. The primary business is to help those who come, to feel and to profit by the religious impress of the place.’ It is ironic and, I believe, profoundly sad that increasing numbers of cathedrals and greater churches are now reintroducing those charges for admission which Dean Bennett worked so hard to abolish. Of course the entry fees are usually disguised as ‘suggested donations’ or somesuch, but with turnstiles and ticket counters – often manned by distinctively aggressive staff or volunteers – these supposedly voluntary payments feel anything but. Last October a particularly complacent article in The Times by a cathedral dean (no names, no pack drill!) caught my eye. In it the Dean claimed that cathedrals ‘uniquely provide a space where people connect with what is deep inside them.’ That word ‘uniquely’ so annoyed me that I felt compelled to reply as follows: ‘I have felt the power of the Numinous in many cathedrals (my near-neighbour at Wells springs immediately to mind) but equally I have been appalled at the way some of our great cathedrals have sold their soul and turned themselves into money-making theme parks. ‘Equally, I have experienced the touch of the divine in churches in remote country villages and grey inner-city parishes. The greatest obstacle they face today is the need to be locked most of the time for fear of thieves, vandals and arsonists. The work of the Open Churches Trust … deserves much wider recognition and support. ‘Meanwhile the Greater Churches’ Network of 32 cathedral-sized churches from Sherborne Abbey, Wimborne Minster and Christchurch Priory in the south to Hexham Abbey and Sunderland Minster in the north, are also experiencing a marked rise in visitors and worshippers. We attribute this less to heavy marketing and extensive tourist facilities than to the presence in each of a dedicated local congregation who literally seep our buildings in prayer. Without the financial resources of the cathedrals, and in most cases without charging for anything, we are what all cathedrals ought to be, but some have forgotten how to be: flagships of the spirit.’ I was quite astonished when the letter was published to receive numerous responses by post and email, cheering me on. One very eminent Dean, now retired, wrote ‘Since I left my beloved cathedral in 1996 it has, with growing acclaim, embraced the trends you so cogently and rightly deplore. Its largest department after music is marketing, and last year £180,000 was spent on the promotion of money-making activities that were entirely devoid of religious content…. At so many points the chink of money drowns the voice of prayer.’ He also added that ‘significantly, perhaps’ Sunday attendance at the greater church in the diocese (still no names!) ‘is now larger than that of its cathedral.’ Philip Larkin, in his poem ‘Churchgoing’, tells of an awkward visit to an old church, and wonders why he bothered to stop and visit it at all. He goes on: Yet stop I did: in fact I often do, And always end much at a loss like this, Wondering what to look for; wondering, too, When churches fall completely out of use What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep A few cathedrals chronically on show, Their parchment, plate, and pyx in locked cases, And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep. Shall we avoid them as unlucky places? I have a feeling that, if we are to keep them alive, we need at all costs to avoid the trap of turning our cathedrals and great churches into heritage sites and theme parks. The vast industry of relieving every tourist of his or her last pound, dollar or euro might in the end prove to be self-defeating if when people look at our glorious church buildings all they see is a tourist attraction. And it is no good our pretending that all our visitors are ‘pilgrims’. They are not – at least, not until they have learned how to see. In an article published in The Times, Janet Martin Soskice insists that ‘looking’ and ‘seeing’ are two completely different activities. And our churches, she complains, often only help visitors to ‘look’ rather than to ‘see’. She recalls a pair of stunning frescoes in Verona. ‘What did I find’, she asks, 'to help me understand these frescoes?’ Just ‘leaflets, [containing] the same indigestible art history as ever.’ I’m know that the Friends of Wimborne Minster play a vital part in keeping this church open to all and free to all by raising a large slice of the funds required to look after its glorious fabric. As a visitor, I thank you for it. But always remember that the key word is ‘conservation’ not ‘preservation’. To preserve a church building as in aspic, and allow no change, is the surest way of turning it into a museum, and of killing its soul. The Church Buildings Council has succeeded in persuading even English Heritage that the conservation of these marvellous places of worship should include what they call ‘enhancement and enrichment’. And that takes us right back to our reading from Haggai, with which I began: ‘The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.’ Philip Larkin concluded his poem like this: For, though I've no idea What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth, It pleases me to stand in silence here; A serious house on serious earth it is, In whose blent air all our compulsions meet, Are recognised, and robed as destinies. And that much never can be obsolete, Since someone will forever be surprising A hunger in himself to be more serious, And gravitating with it to this ground, Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in, If only that so many dead lie round. I believe that, for many people, great churches like Wimborne Minster go a long way to satisfy that ‘hunger to be more serious’, and to provide a proper ground ‘to grow wise in’. Thanks to the generosity of you, the Minster’s Friends, I have no doubt that it will continue to do so for many years to come – in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.