The Church of England is flogging off Dick Whittington. No, this isn’t an innuendo or a twist from a pantomime, but reality. The burial place of the mayor and cat enthusiast, St Michael Paternoster Royal, is being sold off as an office. The people behind this act are the Diocese of London, who bought you the Martin Sargeant scandal, which saw a church official jailed for five years after he managed to defraud the London Diocesan Fund of £5 million undetected.
The Diocese of London is now a byword for the worst excesses of the culture which is slowly killing the Church
The Diocese of London is now, in Church of England circles, a byword for the worst excesses of the culture which is slowly killing the Church. The leadership – its bishops, archdeacons and faceless grey managers – are hopelessly out of their depth. They are devoid of pastoral instinct, practical talents or any sense of the profound beauty of the glory of God.
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