GATES WIDE OPEN IN WELCOME

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31975, 30 April 1969, Page 2

GATES WIDE OPEN IN WELCOME

The gates of St Paul’s Deanery, London, have never been closed since the present Dean (the Very Rev. Martin Sullivan) and Mrs Sullivan moved in. The portals in the high brick wall stand wide open in welcome and to give passers-by a glimpse of the fine old house which was built in 1672 by Sir Christopher Wren.

“I never thought I would have such a lovely home to live in,” Mrs Sullivan said in Christchurch yesterday. “When we left for our visit to New Zealand the garden was full of daffodils in bloom—right in the heart of the city.”

Mrs Doris Sullivan, who has been in Christchurch briefly to visit her mother, talked of the historic, threestoreyed house of about 50 rooms with the warmth of a genuine home-lover. “My sole household help is a daily woman who comes in four mornings a week, but we only use the ground floor and the first floor. It is a wonderful home for entertaining.” she said. From a collection of photographs. which she brought to show her mother. Mrs Sullvan dwelt particularly on the diningroom, hung with pictures of former deans of St Paul’s and a large portrait of Sir Chistopher Wren over the fireplace. Second-Favourite “And in the hall we have a picture of another Dean— John Donne—who is my favourite dean, bar one," she added. Her pride of the walled garden are two huge plane trees and an old elm. “And I am trying to persuade a few roses to grow, but the garden does not get much sun,” she said. “It is i a matter of trial and error I to find out what will survive (best in the shade.” The gardener who looks . after the grounds of St Paul's Cathedral as well as the deanery garden is a girl who recently graduated from Oxford. Hospitality The Dean and Mrs Sullivan enjoy sharing their home, gathering in old friends and greeting new ones. Recent guests have Included Prince Charles and Princess Anne. They spent part of an evening there after attending a “Son et Lumiere" performance held at the Cathedral during last year’s youth festival. Scores of New Zealand visitors to London have also enjoyed the hospitality of the Auckland-born Dean and his wife In their present home. “We are always delighted to see New Zealanders,” Mrs Sullivan said. “We meet New Zealanders in London we had not seen for years before we left for England.” After the 6.30 p.m. Sunday service at St Paul’s, the Dean often invites groups of young people from the congregation home for biscuits and coffee. “There may be five or 50. They come from Europe. Com-

monwealth countries and other parts of the world. I love to see them,” she said. Place For Youth Mrs Sullivan feels that more young people are now going to services at the Cathedral. “I think the youth festival had something to do with it” she said. “The young then realised that St Paul's was not just a big, impersonal cathedral, but a church with a place for them in it We can’t be sure yet but we feel this is so." The Cathedral has no organisations apart from the Friends of St Paul's, with the Queen Mother as patron. “I belong to this, of course, but I have no specific duties

as the Dean's wife," she said. “My job is to take part in city functions with my husband and to do whatever he wants me to do. It is a fascinating life in London, but even after seven years away 1 am beginning to feel as if I have never left New Zealand.” No Spare Time It is an all-absorbing life that leaves no time now for a few days retreat on their houseboat, moored on the Thames River near Hampton Court

“It is sad, but we are going to sell our boat We just can’t get there any more and we are such landlubbers we did not realise how much time had to be given to its upkeep,” Mrs Sullivan said.