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Pamela Greener

2 comments on this attachment:

paul forrest said...
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Reading the Dean re VAT changes. As a former member of Dewsbury Minster, but now living in Limoges, France…I was fascinated to learn that all the cathedrals and major churches in France are owned and maintained by the Department for Culture. Small village churches are maintained at the cost of the local Mairie. Despite France being completely irreligious, (our Cure (of Bourganeuf) has 18 Churches, though that in our commune has but one messe per year.) Best practice to preserve heritage.Perhaps you would bring the French alternative to the attention of Government/Opposition & HMT ?? Best wishes in your endevours, Paul Forrest

Lay Anglicana said...
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Thank-you Paul – it’s a good idea, but I wonder why it has never caught on? So far as I know, in other places where they have state churches (Scandinavia) the government does make hefty contributions to the upkeep. On the other hand, the Church is very much the servant of the state. When Denmark recently voted in Parliament to bring in same -sex marriages, one Tuesday I think it was, the bishops were told to come up with an appropriate liturgy by the following Wednesday – and they did! You wouldn’t catch the good old CofE doing that. So I am guessing that at some time in the past the bishops themselves (thinking they were quite well off) turned down the offer of a closer embrace by the State.

I went round Rouen cathedral last year and was rather dismayed at the gloom and cobwebs. No doubt if it was in danger of actually falling down, the State would step in. But it didn’t exactly strike me as a model to follow.

02 October 2012 19:10
02 October 2012 16:56

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