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TO BE A TOURIST

Revd Canon Edward Probert, Chancellor (Saturday 20th August 2005)

I very frequently have conversations with the cathedral’s vergers, guides, and others who spend a great deal of time in the building, in which they say something along the following lines: ‘I’ve been coming here 20 years, but I’ve only just noticed that……....’ Even those with the deepest love for and knowledge of the place know that they have a great deal yet to discover.

How then do we set this alongside the fact that most of those who visit the cathedral will probably be here for less than an hour? And that in many cases the few minutes spent here will be part of a historical and cultural bombardment including within a day visits to, say, Stonehenge, Windsor, Bath? Having seen my American cousins in the midst of a week of such trips, I have some understanding of the look of blank tiredness on the faces of many of our cathedral’s visitors. Being a tourist, and especially one who tries to get around a country and understand it a little better in the few days available, can be really hard work.

Tourism is one of the world’s biggest businesses. Millions are able to take holidays in Indonesia or the Caribbean, or stag nights in the Baltic, and to exploit the advantages of other societies – whether they are perceived as sunshine, culture, history, or cheap alcohol. During their visits, all tourists form a variety of first impressions – and probably have little time (and possibly inclination) to go beyond them.

Quite apart from the fact that most of us are sometimes tourists ourselves, tourism has brought many benefits to the UK and to Salisbury, and much of our cathedral’s income and continuing life derive from its visitors. We owe it to them to share its best with them. If, when they leave, they still have only seen the surface, but have there encountered beauty, welcome, space and peace, and a quiet Anglican strength and courtesy, we can be pleased.

After all, a relationship with the cathedral is rather like one with a person: it could be a friendship or love that gets deeper with the years; or a brief meeting, from which only first impressions remain. The trick is to be the same on the surface as in the depths. Are we?

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