Friday, March 09, 2007

The Saga of the Wren Chapel Cross Appears to be over

Or is it? The cross is now under glass so as not to offend anyone ("Look it's just a harmless museum piece, a part of our distant past").

By night's end, the committee had hammered out a recommendation, and its co-chairs were on the home doorstep of university President Gene Nichol, their solution in hand: Put the cross back on permanent display, but in a glass case away from the altar, with a plaque detailing the college's Anglican roots and its historic connection to Bruton Parish Church.

[...]

The chapel's sacristy - where the cross was stored after Nichol removed it from permanent display in October - will be expanded to allow room for other religions' symbols and objects. Meese offered the example of Jewish students who brought a Torah to the altar decades ago.

Nichol said he would now reach out to all alumni and donors in wake of this compromise, in hopes of preventing the loss of more donations.

Last week, the college confirmed that a major donor rescinded promises to donate a total of $12 million to the college because of the cross controversy.
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You lose $12 million and you think up a solution pretty quickly. If I were one of the alumni, I wouldn't find this solution acceptable. I wouldn't want the cross to be regulated to a separate part of the church, under glass, not really relevant for a worship service.

Related Posts:
Cross Removed from Chapel at William and Mary College
What? A Plaque Over a Cross?
Update on the Wren Chapel Cross Controversy
William and Mary loses $12 million pledge over cross