OPEN DOOR POLICY

Evening Star, Issue 19351, 10 September 1926, Page 4

OPEN DOOR POLICY

SMI3Y FREE CATHEDRALS 1 NEW EHGLISH HOVEMEHT 9 I i Ifc is only six years sine© the Dean i of Chester decided to abolish fees for J visitors to the cathedral under his f charge, but already eleven otherEng- | lish cathedrals have followed his ex|i ample. Some cathedrals such as Lichv field and Truro have .never charged \ fees. Others, like Carlisle, have I; abolished some of them. The cathe- | drals which have abolished them alto--1 gethor are Cantertbury, Winchester, | Bristol, Ely, Gloucester, Manchester, || Rochester, St. Albans, Salisbury, South--2 well, and Worcester. | Something like half the cathedrals lj of England are now free, and the re--9 markable thing is that they have lost I nothing by the change. The voluntary | offerings of visitors and increased re- | ceipts for publications have more than I made up for the lost lees and the added j expenses. The increase in income has f usually been great, oiten double the | previous average. At Chester it has } been multiplied by ten. ’ A new spirit of reverence has been | 'shown among the visitors, with an ■ini' creased desire to take part in some ser- | vice, formal or informal; while report j after report shows that the privilege | lias not been abused, that no special jj precautions have been needed, and that ij no damage has been done. I The following notes are from a letter | of Dr Bennett, the Dean of Chester: | “ Six years ago 1 took up my residence 1 at Chester as dean. From my house | I saw in the early afternoon a party of ; visitors turn away disappointed from i the cathedral door. It was locked. i The sight filled mo with such shame | that I took steps, with the entire goqd- » will of my chapter, to make thus the ] very last time for such a mlshappening. /, jiince then our cathedral has been ij , open without fence or fee on week- | days from 7 a.m. till dark, and on | Sundays from 7.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. Si “We have a good profit for the I cathedral out of what is put into our 3 voluntary offering boxes every Sunday. I None of our vergers or helpers accepts | tips, and no one is badgered to give, f I make a point of being myself in the | cathedral as much as I can between the i| services on a Sunday. It is an admir- * able opportunity for talking a little r©- * ligion to our visitors. _ Anyone who | regards the crowds who visit our cathe- | drals as irreligious makes a great mis- | take. They are more interested in ro- £ ligion than in anything else. | “ About the closing of our cathoj drals on Sundays between tho services 5 1 feel so strongly that I cannot resist ii expressing the hope that the public in S general and church folk in particular I will go on protesting and agitating i until this crowning scandal of yisionless I cathedral mismanagement disappears for -Aver,”-