You can say a lot of things about British history. ‘Bloody, cruel, unjust, imperialistic, occasionally ridiculous, often eccentric’ come to mind. But if there’s one thing we can all agree
on about British history, it is this – there’s a lot of it.

Canterbury Cathedral, for example, has stood in its current form, largely untouched, for nearly a thousand years. Its first version was planted 500 years before that. It has seen a thing or two,
including state funerals, a royal wedding, and a few brutal murders. But earlier this year, the majesty of we Episcopalians’ Mother Church hosted four ‘Raves in the Nave’ – dance parties
featuring contemporary music. Richard Morrison of the Times of London, put it this way: “To traditionalists, the spectacle of 750 people bopping on the stones where Thomas Becket was murdered seems not just incongruous but sacrilegious. Yet the 3,000 tickets for the four shows were snapped up instantly, at £25.95 each. Similar public enthusiasm greeted silent discos in other British cathedrals. Clearly many people love the idea of letting their hair down in a glorious sacred space.”

The innovators behind the dance parties have three strong arguments in their favor. One is more pragmatic than holy – it costs £30,000-a-day to run an ancient cathedral, and they receive no
taxpayer money. Another feels more worthy – if you get non-church-goers into our sacred spaces they may encounter God or may return for an act of real Christian worship. “I have
known people to attend a gig in this transcendent space and then join the congregation,” says the curator of an Anglican church in London that regularly holds Saturday night raves.
The third argument going for the innovators is less obvious, but makes more sense. Actually, they say, we have already been doing this sort of thing for centuries. Some English cathedrals
have been staging concerts for 300 years for the plain and simple reason that God loves music and wants us to enjoy it. If you can clap an orchestra in a church, why can’t you dance to a DJ?

Nonetheless, I personally feel a little uneasy by the Raves in the Nave. We Christians tend to be conservative by nature – I mean literally conservative, not necessarily politically. We see the
value in tradition and we wish to conserve the good things that have been handed down to us – like spiritual practices, biblical ethics, liturgy and, yes, ancient buildings where God has been
worshiped for centuries. Because we seek to conserve the good things we have inherited, innovation can feel alien and threatening. We are often rightly cautious that too much
innovation, or innovation that is poorly introduced, can cause us to take our eye off the ball. So, I’m left with mixed feelings. I guess, like many things in life, I recognize the good intentions
of Canterbury Cathedral, and in my head I agree with their reasoning. But, I’m also rather glad that I’m thousands of miles away and will never have to think about this except in hypothetical
terms!