“silent disco” evenings in Canterbury Cathedral make some faithful jump

The prestigious religious building, headquarters of the Anglican Church of England, offers two “silent dance parties” per week. A petition was launched to protest against this initiative.

Some people can rest assured: this is not a “rave party in the nave”. Canterbury Cathedral, southeast of London, will be transformed into a nightclub. Several dance evenings take place there these days, with the reverend’s consent.

In total, 3,000 people come to dance with headphones on. The theme of these evenings, where it will be possible to drink alcohol: the 1990s, with hits from the era by Britney Spears, the Spice Girls, Whitney Houston or even Eminem and Oasis. If places are sold out to attend, the concept also irritates certain believers, who want to gather in front of the cathedral to demonstrate their opposition. More than 1,600 of them signed an online petition against the event.

Outrage of a former Anglican priest

Gavin Ashenden disapproves of this initiative and says so on social networks. Incidentally, this former Anglican priest discovered the tube The Real Slim Shady by Eminem which will be broadcast in the cathedral. And especially this sentence: “My bum is on your lips, my bum is on your lips. And if I’m lucky, you might just give it a little kiss”.

“My butt is on your lips. If I’m lucky, you might give them a little kiss, he transcribes. These words will be broadcast into the headphones of drunken ravers who will contemplate ancient architecture, 14 centuries of Christian history, into which they tumbled in search of a good time., denounces Gavin Ashenden. Canterbury Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage building located in Kent in the south-east of England, is the seat of the Anglican Church of England. Its archbishop is its spiritual head and as such, crowns in particular the British monarch, who is its supreme head.

But faced with criticism, the dean of Canterbury Cathedral does not back down: he recalls that the church has always been part of the life of the community in a much broader way than a simple place of worship, specifying that over time For centuries, all kinds of dances have been practiced within these sacred walls.