The cathedral is open today and tomorrow for an art and craft sale which has been organised by folk associated with L’Arche. The pics on the walls are lovely and it is good to have the place open for people to drop in.
Getting the building open for more hours per week is a part of what I’m here to do, I think. Next weekend we are open for the Glasgow Open Doors event, which feels very good. I deliberately specified the open times as including the times of the morning service, which will be interesting. It is fascinating how many places of worship do the doors open day but ask people not to come when the building it being used for its main purpose.
It may be distracting, it may be infuriating, it may drive the stewards round the bend, but the idea of people beating a path to the door and demanding to see what is going on in church on a Sunday morning is positively delicious.
Agreed! When I was in Bath earlier this summer, James and I stopped by the Abbey curious to see inside and possibly join Matins, which was about to start. When we discovered the service would be an hour we were concerned, since we had only a little while to spend in Bath before dashing off to Wales to visit rellies for tea. But the stewards were lovely, happily directing us to a pew at the rear and saying we were welcome for how ever much of the service we could attend. Despite the fact that it was the 19-something-maybe-actually-16-something-scarily-old-fashioned-and-exclusive liturgy that sent me mentally reeling back to the 1982 Scottish Blue Book in panic, the welcome to tourists was most well, welcome!