From Canon Bob Baker
Sir, - The increased attendances at our cathedrals (News
and Leader comment, 16 August) are,
of course, both welcome and encouraging. They also raise some
questions.
First, how much of this is real growth? Cathedrals are
increasingly attractive because they not only provide beautiful
music and many other good things, but also make fewer demands on
the bank accounts or time of those who attend. Singing Victorian
hymns with five other people in a cold church can hardly
compete.
Anecdotal evidence also suggests that on Christmas Eve, for
example, the increased attendance at midnight has coincided with a
significant drop in the number of parish churches offering that
service. Are our cathedrals simply emptying our smaller
churches?
Second, what are our cathedrals doing to make disciples of these
attenders? In Norwich Cathedral, the casual visitor can quickly
learn a lot about the Benedictine way of life and medieval
buildings, but not about who Jesus is and why he is worth
following. He is well hidden.
But the biggest question is still more important: with thousands
of urban and village churches on the brink of viability, are we
sleep-walking into a model of church that we may not want, with
large well- resourced centres of worship and fewer and fewer parish
churches?
If this Tesco church model is our strategic goal (and it may be
the right one), then we need to take some hard decisions about
closing smaller branches, something that our bishops seem too
frightened to contemplate.
If it is not, then our cathedrals, as mother churches in each
diocese, need to play their part in strengthening the rest of the
family.
BOB BAKER
Team Rector of Thetford and
Church Commissioner
The Rectory, 6 Redcastle Road
Thetford IP24 3NF
From Mr Mike Lawlor
Sir, - My Church of Ireland cousins from Cork like to attend
midweek choral evensong at Westminster Abbey whenever they are in
London.
This year, they remarked to me that there seemed to be a much
larger congregation, but that it was evident that not everyone was
there to worship.
When they chatted to a functionary on the way out, the consensus
seemed to be that it had been discovered that attendance at worship
seemed to have become a way to beat the now fairly hefty entrance
charges to the Abbey.
MIKE LAWLOR
38 Admiralty Way, Teddington
Middlesex TW11 0NL