As of October 10th, the interior walls and pillars of Canterbury Cathedral in England have been covered in graffiti. While the graffiti is actually decal stickers, the shocking effect is the same. The installation is called “Hear Us,” and the official story is that the art exhibition poses questions to God drawn from community workshops. Curator Jacqueline Creswell states that the exhibit is “giving the marginalized community of Canterbury a voice within the cathedral putting profound questions to God.”

The installation raises many questions about the current leadership of the Anglican Church. It also makes one wonder what purpose this art exhibition serves and what it might symbolize in terms of the state of the Church of England.

1. The act of graffiti, even as performance, is disrespectful

In most countries, graffiti is illegal not only because of the destruction of property, the economic cost of clean-up, but also because of the psychological costs of its presence within a community.

A legal website called LegalClarity.org explains the rationale for why graffiti should be considered illegal in this way:

“The presence of graffiti can contribute to a perception of disorder or insecurity within a community. Certain markings, such as gang tags, often serve as territorial markings or signals of criminal activity. This visual communication can heighten fear among residents, leading to concerns about their safety.”

Canterbury Cathedral occupies a historic place in the spiritual life of the country. It is not only a World Heritage site, but also the cathedral of the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Church of England and the historic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Even as a mere performance, the graffiti signifies a lack of respect for the spiritual role of Canterbury Cathedral. As a symbol, it is entirely possible that the exhibit might create a psychological effect of distress for the believing church.

2. Those in charge of the art installation are not connected to the church.

It is striking that those put in charge of this installation have no public connection to Christianity or the Christian faith. For example, Alex Vellis, the poet in charge of the questions posed to God, writes on June 18 on his Facebook page:

“It’s your favorite, or at the very least, thought of fondly, genderless goblin creature. Next week I’ll be crawling out from the sewer grate I’ve been hiding in to perform at @spokenword-paris.”

The man in charge of the graffiti put on one of the oldest cathedrals in England refers to himself as “your favorite… genderless goblin creature” and says he’ll be “crawling out from the sewer grate.”

On his Facebook page, on October 3, Vellis describes his new book Where the Flowers Grow as "a metamorphosis of the queer experience,” and his poem “Wild Years,” published in a webzine called Ink, Sweat and Tears in July 2022, has not a single reference to anything remotely Christian:

“Give me long, soft nights/

And give me streets that snake and steel and grow dark/” (lines 2-3)

“Give me hot skin/

And give me well-read books that belch, and spit, and grow light./” (lines 5-6)

“Give me tight jam-jar lids/

And give me hand-drawn maps that leaf and lose, and find nothing./

And so give me bloody knees.” (lines 8-10)

Instead, the imagery in the poem is vaguely sado-masochistic. Vellis does not desire Jesus, but “books that belch,” “streets that snake” and “bloody knees.”

On his Facebook page, on April 15, Vellis describes himself as running workshops “that will, for some time, change the landscape of the cathedral.”

Why does the landscape of the cathedral need to be changed?

3. The true marginalized of the Church of England were not part of the discussion.

Curator Jacqueline Creswell makes a point of stating that the installation’s purpose was “giving the marginalized community of Canterbury a voice within the cathedral.” Why should the marginalized community of Canterbury have a voice within the cathedral? They are not believers. I may be stating the obvious here, but a church is a place of worship for believers, and those who adhere to the faith should have a voice before those who don’t.

The truly marginalized of the Church of England are those African, South Asian, and Latin American communities whose voices were ignored regarding church doctrine on same-sex unions and who, in February 2023, broke from the Church of England permanently to form their own denomination.

The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) said in a press release the week following their official break, on February 23, 2023:

“As much as the GSFA Primates also want to keep the unity of the visible Church and the fabric of the Anglican Communion, our calling to be ‘a holy remnant’ does not allow us to be “in communion” with those provinces that have departed from the historic faith and taken the path of false teaching. This breaks our hearts, and we pray for the revisionist provinces to return to ‘the faith once delivered’ (Jude 3) and to us.”

The Primates (a senior bishop in the Anglican church) endorsing this statement stem from South Sudan, Chile, Madagascar, Congo, Myanmar, the United States, Bangladesh, Uganda, Sudan, Egypt, Brazil and Melanesia -- for the most part, locations once called “third world.”

Half a year later, on October 23, 2023, the GSFA Primates met in Cairo, Egypt to discuss its future as a church body and determined that it had two main overarching goals:

• ‘to take the gospel out urgently,’ recognizing the roots of the global Communion in the faithful and costly proclamation of the gospel;
• ‘to work on re-setting the Communion according to its biblical and historical roots. We all know and lament that our Communion has entered a deep darkness of rebellion to the truth of God’s word.’

Archbishop Justin Badi, the Chairman of GSFA and Primate of South Sudan, urged the Crown Nominations Commissions (CNC) to select an Archbishop of Canterbury that would hold fast to Christian teaching in an article he penned in June 2025.

“So while we recognize that the appointment of an orthodox Archbishop of Canterbury cannot of itself turn back the clock, this could be an opportunity to begin undoing the damage by showing that the Church of England is now willing to take seriously the concerns of her ‘daughter’ Churches.

It would also help us to restore trust which has been undermined over the past twenty years by failure to exercise meaningful discipline where Provinces have unilaterally departed from the Apostolic faith, and by the neo-colonial manipulation of procedures to marginalize orthodox voices.”

In the end, the CNC ignored Archbishop Badi’s pleas and selected ultra-liberal Sarah Mullally as the next Archbishop of Canterbury. The new archbishop allowed a graffiti display at the Church of England’s symbolic head cathedral that ridicules the holy church while disingenuously proclaiming that it’s “art” and therefore excusable.

In my opinion, the non-believers involved in this graffiti art-installation are not to blame. The Church of England, bolstered by the Crown, is the one responsible for neglecting its ‘daughter’ churches and allowing its highest seat to be occupied by those who wish to speed its dissolution.

Image: David Iliff