Disco! at the Cathedral

He gives me a broad grin and I return a sheepish one. Only the pleas of THE LAMP’s editors could ever have sent me to Canterbury Cathedral’s so-called Rave in the Nave, Britain’s ecclesiastical controversy of the moment. In total about twenty Anglican cathedrals have hosted, or are planning to host, these events in collaboration with the event organizer Silent Discos in Incredible Places. A group of protesters led by Cajetan Skowronski, a doctor from Sussex, has described the enterprise as sacrilegious; but the dean of the cathedral, who emphatically disowns the term “Rave in the Nave,” rejects such complaints. “Our 90s-themed silent disco will be appropriate to and respectful of the cathedral,” the dean has promised in a statement, adding that “cathedrals have always been part of community life.”