The Lincoln College chapel was vandalised in what the college chaplain has called an act of “abuse and damage”.
A group of individuals, whose identities have not yet been released, entered the chapel sometime between 1pm and 9pm on Friday 13th May. The chaplain revealed in an email sent to students and staff following the incident that various acts of vandalism were committed.
The damage included the rearranging of furniture and furnishings, burning of Easter candles, writing of strange symbols on hymnals and service books with black makeup pens, defacement of the embroidered cross on linen used in Holy Communion, grinding of charcoal into the cloth covering the altar’s side table, and crumbling of charcoal (intended for use in burning incense) across the linen altar cloth. Many of the objects which were defaced were blessed for use in Christian worship.
Disturbingly, these actions took place during an unplanned power cut. Internal emails reassuring students that maintenance and IT staff were hurrying to solve the problem also reveal that their own battery backups went down for a time as well.
Everything destroyed can be replaced, but Lincoln chaplain, Revd Dr Andrew Shamel, says it constitutes a “direct attack on God or at the least Christian faith itself” for some believers. Desecration of aspects of the Christian altar are offensive and hurtful to Christians. For example, the Paschal candle symbolizes a special form of Christ’s presence in the Church after the Resurrection at Easter and the destruction of this holy object is highly disrespectful. Destruction of any sacred object is akin to “a precious heirloom, a work of art, or a memento resonant of a loved one”, Revd Dr Shamel explained.
The college chapel was originally built in the early seventeenth century in a late Gothic, perpendicular style and consecrated in 1631. Statues on the front pews and ornate ceilings were added in the 1680s. Apart from restoration work that took place in the 1990s, the Chapel has remained mostly unchanged since the late seventeenth century. Notable features include enamelled windows by the master painter Abraham van Linge which depict various Biblical figures and scenes and a large organ in a pine ante-chapel.
Revd Dr Shamel raised particular concerns over the treatment of the objects on the altar table: the Paschal candle, linen corporal cloth, and the table itself. These objects are used in the rite of the Eucharist, which symbolises the last supper Jesus ate with his disciples, and a “mysterious recapitulation of the sacrifice of the Crucifixion”. Each object on the table is loaded with symbolism. The white tablecloth symbolises the special role of the altar table in the ceremony, while the smaller corporal cloth is used to delineate the focus of the blessing of the bread and wine and collect crumbs from the consecrated bread. “Many Christians regard each crumb of the bread of the Eucharist as precious and so it much not be lost or trod upon,” he said, adding “I hope it is clear how the scattered charcoal and deep marking marring these fabrics and surfaces set aside for the Eucharist would be so problematic”.
A similar instance of chapel vandalism in Central Oxford was reported on by Cherwell in 1984. Two Brasenose College students ransacked that college’s chapel and left behind a number of offensive images, included pentagrams and inverted crosses. The two students, who also had a history of disciplinary infractions, confessed the same morning to their “drunken prank”. They were each fined £50, plus an additional £15 for a separate incident in which they danced on the roof of the Principal’s lodgings. The JCR President at the time denied that the College was a “place for Devil worshippers”, and said “the incident has left Christians in the college very perturbed, very upset. The fact that these people infringed on spiritual beliefs is appalling.”
Image credit: Remi Mathis
