By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:37 AM on 28th March 2011
New age: Manchester Cathedral is to hold a new age festival to celebrate 'all forms of spirituality'
The Church of England was braced for a fresh row today after a
cathedral announced plans to host a 'new age' festival.
The event - featuring tarot card readers, crystal healers, dream
interpretation, and a fire-breathing vicar - is to be held in
Manchester Cathedral in May.
But the move is certain to anger traditionalists, who feel the
Church has already strayed too far from tradition.
Hundreds have already defected to the Roman Catholic Church after
deep splits over the ordination of gay and women priests.
Anglican leaders in Manchester decided to hold the festival in
the historic cathedral in a bid to embrace alternative forms of
Christianity.
Fortune tellers, meditation experts and traditional healers will
fill the pews during the day-long festival. The Bishop of
Manchester, Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, said he wanted to celebrate
'all forms of spirituality'.
The Church is in trouble. Attendances have fallen for the sixth
year in a row, according to official figures that also showed it
holding fewer marriages, baptisms and funerals.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, the Vatican boasted that 900
disaffected Anglicans have left their parishes to become Roman
Catholics. Many are believed to have felt alienated by the
Church's 1992 decision to allow women to be ordained as priests.
Holy ground: Fortune tellers, meditation experts, traditional healers and a fire-breathing vicar will fill the pews of the ancient Cathedral for the event
But Bishop Nigel insisted the unconventional activities due to
take place in Manchester Cathedral were not incompatible with
Christian belief.
He said: 'The event is a chance to discover and explore old and
new Christian spiritual traditions from living in a community to
praying with icons, from healing to bead-making, from Franciscan
spirituality to contemporary music and movement.
'Practitioners from all over the country will be on hand to offer
their experience of how God speaks to us today through the
cultural language and practices so common in mind, body, spirit
fairs.'
The Spirit of Life festival on May 2 will also feature stalls and
workshops on angels, prayer bead-making and massage.
Fire-breathing vicar Rev Andy Salmon, of Sacred Trinity Church and St Philip with St Stephen in Salford, will also perform.
The event will cost £5 with children under 12 free when accompanied by an adult.