“Rave in the Nave”: On the Desecration of English Churches
Published June 12, 2024
The great cathedrals, so full of beauty and interest, are now like whales washed up on an alien shore, the faith that built them a flickering light,” James Patrick once wrote. He was right. Everyone accepts that the great churches of Europe are still very important, somehow—remember the public outpouring of grief when Notre Dame was burning?—but most can no longer articulate why. The recent “rave in the nave,” in which a booze-fueled disco was held in Canterbury Cathedral, one of England’s oldest and most storied churches, caused outrage from believers and nonbelievers alike. The event—which was defended by the presiding rector, a gay man ‘married’ to his partner—just seemed unseemly, somehow. We’re not sure what these spaces are for anymore—but not for that.
But why not? If the ancient cathedral—whose origins date back to 597, when Augustine of Canterbury was sent by Pope Gregory the Great to evangelize the English—is simply a grand old building, then what is the problem with disco lights raking the ancient columns and a makeshift bar in the nave as young people dance the night away a stone’s throw from where St. Thomas Becket was martyred in the 12th century? If nothing is sacred, nothing can be desecrated. If nothing is sacred, there is no sacrilege. If nothing is truly sacred, then hosting a disco atop the grave of St. Dunstan makes sense. As Ben Sixsmith noted recently in The Critic, Britain cannot be a ‘culturally Christian’ country without Christians.
It isn’t just Canterbury, either. A rave was held in the 1,000-year-old Winchester Cathedral, in Guildford Cathedral, and in Hereford Cathedral, which was built atop the tomb of St. Ethelbert the King. These parties are being held in churches across the UK to raise money for their upkeep now that tithes have dried up, and so the churches that once hosted choirs singing sacred songs now feature music that, according to one attendee, is “from recent decades—in this case the 1990s, and so songs from artists such as Eminem, Britney Spears, Elton John and the Spice Girls.” Lose yourself, indeed.
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