Bankers have souls too, says Dean of Westminster

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12 April 2012

London's place of worship may sometimes be regarded as Canary Wharf but at Christmas, Westminster Abbey reasserts its claim.

National sorrows and celebrations have been absorbed here since Edward the Confessor. It is the place where Prince Charles will have his coronation and where Prince William will most likely be married. A million visitors tour it each year.

Its authority is not to be trifled with, as David Cameron and Gordon Brown discovered when they were rebuked for Remembrance Day photo-opportunities in its grounds.

The Dean of Westminster, John Hall, who governs the Abbey and answers only to the Queen, also has the power to decide who can be buried or memorialised at the Abbey.

At the moment, he is considering a petition by leading poets to include Ted Hughes in Poets' Corner.

Historian Kenneth Clark once wrote that Westminster Abbey served as a dictionary of national biography. It houses everyone from Isaac Newton to Handel to Dickens to Darwin, as well as kings, soldiers and courtiers.

The Very Rev John Hall has to be ­cautious when handing out this ­spiritual real estate.
"The place is not absolutely stuffed solid but there are 3,300 people buried or memorialised at the Abbey, so that is a lot of people," he says.

He reminds me that the first person to enter Poets' Corner, Geoffrey Chaucer, was admitted not for his poetry but because he was clerk of the king's works.

So far this year, the Dean has permitted a memorial stone to the founders of the Royal Ballet and a memorial to the Intelligence Services, to mark the centenary of MI5.

A service was held, naturally in secret, attended by the Queen, heads of the three intelligence services, and about 54 senior spooks.

What happened remains within those solid walls.
Most moving was the Armistice Day service for the passing of the First World War generation.

The grave of the Unknown Warrior shows the potency of the Abbey memorial. Among the famous names, an exhumed body "unknown by name or rank, brought from France to lie among the most illustrious of the land".

I meet Hall, aged 61, in his rooms off the Abbey cloisters. At one side, he can look out at the pupils of Westminster School in Dean's Yard, for whose moral welfare he is responsible.

More extraordinary is the corridor within his house which leads to a secret viewing place in a gallery of the Abbey.

London is a modern thrusting city of many nationalities and faiths but is also resonant with history. The Dean of Westminster would like the central ­tradition of Christianity to be recognised.

"I welcome the cosmopolitan character of London but I am also clear that tradition and the relation between Church and state — that is the fundamental heartbeat of our national life. I would be very sad if we were to lose that sense of Christianity being at the heart of our national life."

Of course, many visit the Abbey for its history or architecture rather than for faith. The secular love of churches has been championed by liberal heroes such as the late Sir John Mortimer and Sir Ludovic Kennedy.

The Dean of Westminster says: "It is not up to me to convert them, that is God's business." He hopes, however, that the aura of Westminster Abbey will make some of us into pilgrims.

He also enthuses about the Abbey as a place for national events, while being delicate about any counter claims of St Paul's Cathedral, which was where Prince Charles chose to marry Diana, Princess of Wales, because it had more space for guests.

"It has this extraordinary link with the monarchy over the centuries. It is the heart of our national life but it is also really quite intimate. It has a wonderful resonance but no great echo. There is the great sense of height but not the great sense of space you get at St Paul's.

"I sometimes slip into the Abbey when it is empty. It has an aura of prayer, you can almost breathe it."

Perhaps the most resonant Christmas at Westminster Abbey was the first midnight Eucharist in 1943. It was held because everyone was working late hours for the war effort and only four candles were lit, though the congregation were invited to bring torches.

"The place was packed, and silent," says the Dean in his sonorous voice. "I have a great sense of our history and of the rich tradition of which we are a part. I love the great services when the whole Abbey is alive and alight."

Hall is steadfast against claims that we are too fragmented in our national identity to appreciate the role of the Abbey, or too secular in our world view.

"We read so much about our being a secular society and yet the great majority, 72 per cent of people, still describe themselves as Christian. Forty-three per cent of people go to church at Christmas."

I ask if this has been a particularly sinful year, with the greed and recklessness of our financial institutions. The Dean is rather kinder towards bankers than others.

"Bankers have souls, too," he smiles. "One of the prayers is that people should prosper. There is nothing unChristian about prosperity.

"But if we were simply to focus on getting and spending, if that were true, that would be a terrible impoverishment. You can be rich but poor, that is what Jesus says."

The Dean's neighbours are the ­powers of the land. He can look at ­Parliament, the Treasury and the ­judiciary. But the Abbey can claim to be the highest power of all.

"Our constitution is founded on the principle of duty to God and duty to the state," says the Dean. "The Abbey is the symbol of the established church, underpinning the sovereignty of God over all."

The Government may be able to tax the bonuses of bankers, but it is the Dean who can save their souls.

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