A NEW parliamentary network of cathedral cities with a remit to make a “sustained appeal” to the Government for funding support was established this week.

Cathedral deans and their constituency MPs met in Westminster on Tuesday. MPs were urged to propose a motion for debate in Parliament on the value of cathedrals to the nation. The deans also urged the Government to call on the Church’s own National Investing Bodies to meet their obligations to cathedrals.

Parliamentary debates on cathedrals have been held every year for the past few years, covering their economic contribution, choral music, maintenance, and sustainability.

The gathering, convened by the Association of English Cathedrals, was a culmination of meetings between the Deans of Canterbury, Chester, Peterborough, Salisbury, St Albans, and York and their respective MPs. Among the topics discussed was the recent Theos report on cathedrals, published last month, which warned that they were in “serious difficulty”, and that 80 per cent in structural deficit (News, 22 May).

One of the authors of the report, George Lapshynov, told the meeting: “If cathedrals were to fail — and it is much closer to midnight than many think — the loss would not be borne by the Church alone, but by towns, cities, schools, communities, local economies, and the country as a whole.”

Ross McWhir, of the auditors BDO, said that its research had identified a structural deficit that cathedrals could not bridge and that was eating away at their limited reserves and storing up problems for the future.