“The Dean of Southwark does not believe that it is to the glory of God and it is not therefore used in private memorial services.”
William Blake’s hymn, Jerusalem, banned in Southwark Cathedral in 2008, and various other places before.
“…But the Very Reverend Colin Slee believes it is not “to the glory of God” and as such should not be sung by choirs or congregations at the South Bank cathedral, on of Britain’s foremost churches…”
How interesting it is that this poem, by a man “known” to be “pious,” whose opening line is thought to refer to Christ, and which sings of the establishment of the seat of Christ’s second coming, the New Jerusalem, on the verdant hills of England, is constantly under scrutiny for its lack of religious merit. To what are these bishops referring? Is there something more sinister going on with the hymn? Is Blake speaking in some kind of… code?
In the carriage ride issue of From Hell, Dr. Gull speaks of the Masonic double-meanings encoded in the six churches of Nicholas Hawksmoor, and I have already discussed the Druidic associations of William Blake. What is the real story?