I quite vividly recall an exasperated elderly worshipper in a Polish church which was rather plagued with tourists turning in desperation and admonishing those of us who were intruding, uninvited, into his sacred time  with a loud hushing sound. It was a mild rebuke and an entirely understandable one.

It caused a momentary sense of awkwardness , but then the sightseers  reverted back to vocation and snapped and gazed whereas the worshipper was disturbed and forgotten about. I noticed he returned to his silence, but I was convinced that his moment of sanctuary and sanctity had been irretrievably ruined. I was plagued with guilt, but not sufficiently to prevent my gazing entirely.  

This episode has remained with me ever since. It  encapsulates  that dilemma of tourism versus intruding into Christian  places of worship. What can be the relationship between those wishing to view the beauty of a church- all visitors would agree on the beauty, and the faith of that church – which many visitors would not acknowledge or worship.  There is an unresolvable  tension between the motives of faith and beauty perhaps.

I am a steward at an English church which is known for its grandeur and beauty and consequently it is a popular place for visitors to come to and explore. Many visitors, whilst greatly appreciating the architecture, furnishings and imagery of our church do not  follow the faith. To these visitors, there is a substantial attractiveness for the aesthetic and even historical sense of the place but precious  little, unfortunately, of the  faith.

Our church emblems, imagery and print and dazzling displays of the Word and the Story built the church and are the  sole reason for the existence of the church. Beauty alone does not reinforce an absent faith and regrettably it does not ignite a new faith. Visitors glide through, take obligatory pictures, sometimes chat and move on. The church is vacated. In this instance there is no intrusion into services and due to the numbers being manageable and not so overwhelming spiritual practice can co-exist along with the visitors.

Some tourists are considerate, some devout, some not so. Tourists may glide through, take some obligatory pictures and move onto the next essential  thing to see with unseemly rapidity – and noise. The sad reality remains however that the churches and cathedrals are not in existence for a world of babble and speed, there is a real and potential clash of values, belief and behaviour

Roger Scruton boldly and beautifully wrote that those visiting churches without faith were committing “ spiritual theft “ and he is right. Leszek Kolakowski concludes that non-recognition of the genuine, integral holiness of the churches and cathedrals is tantamount to sacrilege. He too is right. But where does that leave us ?

For after all, the church is a place of worship and instruction. There is a touch of arrogance and sad reductionism in the mindset that assesses the art of the past favourably but dismisses the word and the theology that generated that art. Any mind that voluntarily refrains from accepting  the doctrine and spirit and story which built the very house of God which is being acclaimed is limiting its capacity to enjoy the true holiness of the Christian church. A type of spiritual repudiation possibly derived from a mistaken sense of progress.

Of course there are dilemmas aplenty here. It is an inseparable problem from the modern attitude, particularly in the West to the faith which built civilization. The church is an open but sacred place, it ought to be open to all comers as frequently as possible – restricting access only to the truly faithful is an absurd idea. Whoever wishes to enter the church must be greeted by faith, tradition and a powerful sense of meeting Christians in a Christian location; why else would the church be there if not for that reason ? Come, see, experience, and feel the presence of God.

In that experience, the object of the visit, our church, is at risk in some places, of being regarded as a beautiful vestige from a theological age which holds no truths nor relevance for today- akin to an artefact. We risk the culmination of this process being the relegation of Christian worshippers to existing in an indefinable limbo; of the faith but not of the age that engendered the beauty, whereas the admirer views the believer with bafflement or perplexion. On the other hand, the permanent creation and glory of that faith is valued as a wonder but a wonder  of a very lost world.