This is Somerset --RE: "Plans to relocate bishop to new residence near the city", December 5 edition.
Deja vu.
Who are these "Board of Governors" to abrogate the "home" of bishops of Bath and Wells since circa 1210?
The Church of England in my lifetime, increasingly these past 20 years, is witnessing the demise of the church "militant".
Having been baptised, confirmed and been a sometime chorister, I mourn the passing of the clergy of my youth, with exceptions; in my sojourn here in Wells the late prebendary Kenneth Davies comes to mind.
We're all aware of the indecent haste to be rid of St Cuthbert's Vicarage, wherein the solemnisation of marriages and Christian burials was nurtured within the ambience of the parish church, the former the "heart" of the church "militant".
The episcopacy apostolic, the cathedral the seat of the bishop, the Bishop's Palace in its contemporary residential accommodation, the context for any successor bishop.
(Suitable and well regularly hosted by a former Archbishop of Canterbury).
I realise increasingly in a secular society further advocacy for future monarchs with contemporary courtiers to dispense with Buckingham Palace, presumably to accommodation in The Old Kent Road.
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
(William Shakespeare)
Graham Livings
Upper Milton
Wells Reported by This is 3 days ago.