Cathedral puts ban on Jerusalem

12 April 2012

One of the most popular hymns in the country has been banned from a memorial service for its lack of religious content.

Dean of Southwark the Very Reverend Colin Slee barred Jerusalem from a recent service at Southwark Cathedral.

The hymn is sung at the last night of the Proms, by the Women's Institute and is an unofficial song for England rugby fans.

But all Church of England cathedral deans have the power to decide which hymns are sung during services in their domain.

A spokesman for Southwark Cathedral said: "The Dean of Southwark, in common with all other cathedral Deans, has the authority to decide what material is used in liturgy in their cathedral.

"The hymn Jerusalem is often used on national occasions, although rarely in Southwark, even on such occasions.

"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 such as the recent one."

The words of the hymn are a poem by William Blake set to music by Sir Hubert Parry, who wrote the tune for the suffragettes in 1916.

Brian Hoare, chairman of the Pratt Green Trust, a charity which promotes religious music, said: "It's not a hymn I would personally choose. It's a good piece of music and it's a very patriotic hymn, if you can call it a hymn.

"It's not really a devotional hymn. As a tool for Christian worship, I don't think it meets the requirements."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in