The Western Times in 1887 (5th March) was at its most radical. 'Common sense' dictated that Exeter Cathedral should open its doors to the citizens of Exeter as a place of entertainment. This idea was inspired by the news that the daughter of an ex-rector of Heavitree was making for herself a career as an actress. (shock, horror!)
"Histrionics are coming into vogue in Church matters, and we are to have a musical festival in the scheme of a choir festival in Exeter Cathedral, to which the British public will be admitted by five shilling tickets. A procession of singing men in surplice, marching and choralling as they march, with a banner displayed, is a mild sort of beginning which may be made the precursor of some bold and heroic achievements in the histrionic line.
"The cathedral is a national building, and the people may get the use of it in more ways than one. Only get rid of the notion that consecration can affect bricks, stone, mortar, timber and iron, however they may be combined in structure, and the building may be used for any purpose which will give pleasure and satisfaction to the greatest number. People must not surrender their common sense to the parsons. They will find no more religion in a building than the worshippers take into it; and if the professional worshippers who are paid to carry on the established religion of the country pervert their office to the exaltation of the professional class, seeking to exalt their position by the mental enslavement of the people, that building becomes desecrate thereby."
'Common sense' has made little headway over the many years and the Church guards the 'sanctity' of its bricks and mortar, stone, timber, iron, like a dog a bone. Concerts there are, as indeed there were in Georgian times, but not too many and always such as blend with the 'holy' fabric of the building having, perhaps, a sanctified fragrance about them and a few pious words from a dean or something to introduce them.
'To choral' is a pretty verb.
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