"To Christ Himself"

Mariners who sail into Liverpool in future years will behold vast spires shining through the smoke of the seaport. Last week Most Rev. Richard Downey, Archbishop of Liverpool, announced that, after years of subscription by Catholics rich and poor, nearly $1,000,000 had been raised, enough to begin work on the long-antici-pated Liverpool Cathedral. What the Archbishop added was exciting to religious folk. Said he: "Hitherto all cathedrals have been dedicated to saints. I hope this one will be dedicated to Christ Himself with a great figure surmounted on the cathedral visible for many a mile out at sea."

Continuing, he said things calculated to amaze both the pious and the artistic. "We do not want something Gothic," he declared. "The time has gone by when the Church should be content with a weak imitation of medieval architecture. Our own age is worthy of interpretation right now and there could be no finer place than a great seaport like Liverpool. . . . On the other hand, we want nothing 'Epsteinish'."*

Shrewd observers soon suspected an excellent motive behind the Archbishop's words. They recalled that Liverpool is already the site of a great Anglican cathedral, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, under construction since 1903. Modern in adaptation, it is however definitely Gothi-cized--a rugged, buttressed mass, patterned with ogival decoration, which will ultimately surge upward in an enormous square tower. Presumably the Catholic Archbishop wished to confront the neighboring Anglican diocese with a different architecture as well as creed.

When he further announced the appointment of Sir Edwin L. Lutyens as architect, the idea of opposition acquired still more potency. Than the Catholics' Sir Edwin and the Anglicans' Sir Giles, England has no more famed architects. Catholic Sir Edwin, 60, designed the Government House in Delhi (India), many memorials, is an eclectic, fastidious craftsman. Anglican Sir Giles, 49, is an ecclesiastical specialist who loves the mossy, shattered abbeys and cloisters of England. In days to come, as they sit in the quiet recesses of London's Athenaeum Club, they may chat about their cathedrals, exchanging theories and compliments. But as their respective shrines rise on the banks of the River Mersey, they cannot help but command the eyes of England as esthetic competitors.

London's Westminster Cathedral (Catholic) became unique among English edifices last week with the installation of a 185 ft. elevator, similar to those in U. S. skyscraper churches. Before the public was admitted, His Eminence Francis Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster, entered with the cathedral clergy, rode with dignity up and down.

*Jacob Epstein's weird London sculptures (Rima, Night, etc.) have caused acrid controversy throughout England (TIME, July 15).