News by email Donate

Suggestions

Top Stories

Most Read

Popular Videos

coventry-cathedral-main_article_image.jpg
Commons
UK News

Coventry Cathedral return to free entry to increase mission opportunities

The Cathedral has been free in the past but introduced a fee to help with the upkeep of the building. 

Now, it is returning to it's old policy in a bid to welcome more people, an announcement which was made when the Archbishop of Canterbury visited on Saturday. 

John Whitcombe, the Dean of Coventry told Premier: "We want to take down any barriers to people coming in and enjoying our extraordinary building and being caught up in the message that it represents."

"We will be making the announcement just after our 12 o clock litany, which is a prayer we say every day about breaking down barriers between people and nation,

"So it's going to be lovely to be able to say 'and we are taking down this barrier to people being able to come in'"

John said that it feels wrong to have to pay: "I stood by our entrance and I've stood by the entrance of many cathedral up and down the country as people look at the charge and even if it quite a modest charge it's just not in our national mind-set to pay to go into a build of this sort."

"So I'm really confident that so many more people will come in both from the city and from across the country – people who've travelled across the world actually on the whole don't mind paying"

Speaking of how they will make-up the loss in revenue, he said: "We have taken in a little bit short of £100,000 each year in the last few years since we have been charging people for entry so the first thing is to say is we are absolutely delighted to be working with the diocese of Coventry to make this a reality and they have helped us with the set up costs and they're also helping with the potential loss of revenue over the first 2 or 3 years."

Coventry Cathedral will still provide the option to leave a donation on exit. 

He added that their motivation was mission: "As the whole diocese here have reflected and prayed about this, we've really recognised that the cathedral is one of the greatest opportunities for mission that we have together - so it's an expression of partnership."

"We already have a team of volunteers working as chaplains but one of the things the diocese if helping us to do is to make an appointment of a lead Chaplain missioner....their job will both be to talk themselves but also to really train and help some of our other volunteers just to be there, to listen to people, to their stories, if it's appropriate to share something a little more ex about the gospel but just to be there to make sure that really we're making the presence of Jesus known"

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

A Monthly Gift Of $11 Makes A World Of Difference

In a world of fake news there’s never been a greater need for quality Christian journalism. Premier’s mission is to provide the Church with the most up to date and relevant news, told from a Christian perspective. But we can’t do it without you.

Unlike many websites we haven't put up a paywall — we want to keep our journalism free at the point of need and as open as we can. Premier’s news output takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. No one in the USA is sharing news like we are across radio, magazines and online so please help us to continue that today.

For a monthly gift of $11 or more we’d also be able to send you a free copy of the brand new Premier Bible, a wonderful Anglicised version of the NLT packed with exclusive bonus content, reading plan and resources to help you get the most out of scripture.

Your monthly support will make a world of difference. Thank you.

Support Us
Continue the conversation on our Facebook page

Related Articles

Sign up to our newsletter to stay informed with news from a Christian perspective.

News by email

Connect

Donate

Donate