Reading Jan Morris’s 1984 travel book “Journeys”, I came across an amusing passage.
Writing of the great 13th century Wells Cathedral in Somerset, and noting its tiny handful of parishioners, she concluded, “It crossed my mind, indeed so ubiquitous were the symptoms of restoration, that the cathedral’s chief function had become its own repair”.
That was nearly half a century back since whom the decline of the Anglican church has it now on death’s door.
I took the mickey out of this situation in my novella “Heaven Sent”, published last year.
Reading old travel books is always fascinating, even when as with Journeys they’re only half a century old. They bring home how rapidly the world has changed in a host of ways, often amusing.
For example I have a 1920s book by an American travelling through the Caribbean, including a chapter titled “The Darkie Problem”. Imagine the fuss that would erupt by that today.
4 Comments
100 yrs on and nothings changed ehh!
Now its “The Whitie Problem” and, oh boy, do we have problems. For one, spending in excess of what we produce to name the first thing that’s come to mind … hyper-inflation beckons.
And as for the Anglican Church; It’s booming in 3rd world countries and other jurisdictions that haven’t ‘legalised’ buggery. Only a revival will save her.
Absolutely everyone from the past can have their statues, books, street names etc cancelled now, no-one is immune, no concessions are granted to the time in which they lived. The woke mob has even been tearing down statues of abolitionists and military leaders who were on the right side and had the most noble principles possible for their time. There is a disturbing smell of Maoist – Leninist “year zero” in this.