Common Heritage

Tall Dr. Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Canterbury, unceremoniously herded his guests into the cellar. They got there just in time. A German bomb blew off the front of the deanery; some 15 other bombs whistled down into the cathedral close. That night's raid (May 1942) wiped out the cathedral library, smashed several cathedral-owned shops, shook the ancient Norman and English arches of Britain's mother church with six near misses. The bill for repairs and restoration, in the form of a fund launched last summer: $1,200,000. After seven months, the purse-pinched British had subscribed $328,000.

Last week the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of All England, was happy to get a letter from the son of a U.S. Methodist minister. The letter began: "My dear Archbishop: I have this day placed at your disposal with the British Embassy in Washington the sum of $500,000. . . ."

This dramatic, unsolicited windfall came from 76-year-old Banker Thomas William Lament of J. P. Morgan & Co. It was almost enough to cover the largest item on the list of needed cathedral reconstruction: $520,000 to repair the roof and reface the Caen stone, damaged by centuries of British weather as well as bombs. (The stone was brought from Normandy to rebuild the 6th Century church which had been destroyed by fire in 1067.)

English antiquarians were delighted at the promise of speedier restoration for one of their oldest churches--traditional seat of St. Augustine, martyring-place of Thomas a Becket, repository of the bones of saints, and the goal of Chaucer's pilgrims. British economists were pleased to have this unexpected addition to Britain's dollar balance. But Thomas Lament's gift could be better measured in other terms. In his letter of thanks, the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote:

"Your letter speaks of the common religious tradition that our two peoples share. Of that tradition in this country, Canterbury Cathedral ... is the mother church. To that tradition you have added all the richness of your own heritage. The fellowship of our two countries has its roots in our common Christian inheritance, and its expression in the upholding of Christian respect for the freedom, the dignity and the brotherhood of men. . , ."

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