A 900-year-old church in East Yorkshire, England, plans to replace badly damaged figures with feminist and BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) figures.
The vicar at St. Mary’s Church, the Rev. Rebecca Lumley, sought approval from the Church of England’s Consistory Court for the new carvings. According to The Daily Mail, Lumley and the church warden’s said in an application, “The contribution of women to humanity isn’t always properly recognised in the telling of history, and throughout history women’s voices have been silenced.
“We take seriously the Church’s role in battling inequality and injustice,” she continued. “And so we hope that this project will help highlight the remarkable achievements of these women, and provide hope and inspiration for future generations.”
Chancellor Peter Collier, who presided over the ecclesiastical court for approving the measure, said of the original carvings that it was impossible to tell what they were or what theme they represented. Some of the original carvings set to be replaced date back to 1520.
The plan is to replace the figures with Crimean War nursing pioneer Mary Seacole, Marie Curie, airship designer Hilda Lyon, pioneering aviator Amy Johnson, astronaut Helen Sharman, and women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft. The current queen of England is also said to be embroidered in stone. Collier said, “In my judgement, it is entirely appropriate to celebrate these lives for their human achievement.”
As part of a 2020 restoration project, 14 carvings of characters from C.S. Lewis’s “The Chronicles of Narnia” were also put on display at the church.
Source: Newmax
