Canterbury Cathedral is an awe-inspiring, magnificent place. It is also in need of restoration work. To finance the effort, a philanthropic campaign is underway which inadvertantly provides some insight into religion’s standing in the country.
The campaign features large posters with photos of people who are connected to cathedral, each of whom is quoted completing the sentence starter “I love my cathedral because…”. The reasons are varied and understandable: The wonderful staff, the joy of singing, the historical value, the educational programmes and the restoration opportunities for artisans.
Notably absent in the list are motivations such as “I love the cathedral because it brings me closer to God” or “I love the cathedral because it is an inspiring place to practise my Christian faith”.
The campaign designers know their audience. In a self-consciously secular nation, a fund raising campaign to save one of the most significant shrines in Christendom can’t sound any more religious than would an effort to preserve Battersea Power Station.
This is also, I would assume, about the target audience for the campaign. The people for whom the religious aspect is important are already no doubt being hit up by mailings and phone calls and appeals through their local congregations. Public posters, to avoid duplication of effort, should be aimed at people who won’t be reached by those other means.
(And of course there’s a debate no one wants to engage in if you talk about the restoration campaign as a matter of furthering faith. US “Prosperity Gospel” evil aside, there’s a pretty strong tradition of virtuous poverty and self-denial in the christian church, so way too many questions would be asked about why money should go to restoring a sumptuous palace for the religious aristocracy instead of to the poor and the sick.)
Perhaps there is a less cynical explanation, too.
I love Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. Every time I visit New York I visit it. I walk down the block on the other side of Fifth Avenue, admiring it from the outside. If possible I go in the afternoon on a sunny day, so that the sun in the west will shine on the facade. Then I go inside, and admire it in all directions. I love it because it is a magnificent example of what man hath wrought.
I am an agnostic, of Jewish heritage. It doesn’t bring me one inch closer to God. It doesn’t inspire me to become a Christian, nor to return to religious practices. But every time I visit there, I leave a small donation for the building fund. I want it to be just as magnificent next time I return.
Speaking of the restoration of cathedrals, here is a lovely series of articles on how stained glass windows are being made.