That evening Truro Cathedral was holding their very first Pride Carol Service, at which I was to read some poems.
The evening before I had sat down for dinner with the Dean, a man desperate to make it clear that Truro Cathedral was a home for all people; That this Cathedral did not belong to him, or to any one person, and that all were welcome here. A man palpably upset that too many LGBT+ people didn’t feel welcome at all.
That night the Cathedral was lit in rainbow colours, lights leaned against each pillar. The Dean opened with a welcome, an apology for the way the church has, and continues to, treat LGBT people. The local LGBT choir sang. I read my poems. People held their partners hands in a church for the first time.
At the end, a young transgender person walked up to where the Dean was speaking with the leader of Cornwall Pride, in their arms was a bundle of black fabric. They explained that this was a banner they’d unfurled in protest, weeks before, in a demonstration in the square outside the Cathedral - it said “protect trans kids” in Cornish. They asked, tentatively, if they could unfurl it in the Cathedral. An act seemingly impossible, in every Cathedral I’ve been in so far. An act seemingly impossible in almost any church. Not because people don’t agree with it, but because they (myself included) fear the backlash and danger from the hatred that could then come.
The Dean thought for a moment, and then nodded. “Go and stand in the middle” he said, gesturing at the platform right below the crossing “that’s where you’ll get a good photo.” Then he turned to me, explained what it said, and asked if I wanted to help hold it. A crowd gathered. He stood to one side, and watched, smiling, as God’s beloved children stood together - calling, as Christ so often did, for the protection of the marginalised and oppressed.
Every cathedral climb I do is, at its core, a story about people, just as much as it's about crumbling staircases, dizzying heights, and old stone.
But even with that in mind, Truro was a little bit special:
jayhulmepoet.substack.com/p/truro-cath...
