 |
|
|
| Monday, May 12, 2003 |
 There goes the neighborhood: The Ordnance Survey, the British government's official mapmaker, is ready to erase hundreds of churches, chapels, synagogues and mosques from its maps on grounds they are no longer used as places of worship. Under the move, the survey will remove from its maps crosses and other religious symbols at sites that have fallen into disuse for religious activities. These are expected to include some 1,600 former Church of England churches and Methodist chapels plus a handful of synagogues and mosques. Not surprisingly, the Ordnance Survey's action has triggered furious reaction. One church historian described it as "crazy," an archaeologist saw it as the end of a long era, and The Times of London newspaper called it "an act of cartographic deconsecration." Sounds about right.
|
|
|
