Zen Group Stop York Minster Meetings After Christian Objections

Some of you may recall a story we ran in May 2016, "Christian Group Protests Meditation in York Minster" where Andrea Williams, chief executive of the pressure group Christian Concern, said: "Buddhism contrasts sharply with Christian teaching about God. The two are incompatible. To try to mix them is deceptive and dishonours Jesus Christ."

"It is remarkable that this is happening at one of the country's best known cathedrals. The Archbishop of York must take swift action. This type of confusion undermines the Church of England's current initiative to encourage Christian prayer."

"It is sobering that last year a Canon of this same cathedral blessed the city's 'Pride' march. The Church of England must take decisive action to deal with this radical agenda."

Well, guess what, the Zen meditation group is to cease meeting in the grounds of York Minster following controversy over “bilingual religion”.

The group has been told that its weekly 90-minute silent meditation sessions in the Old Palace must end in the autumn.

Senior clergy at York Minster had quietly introduced Zen Buddhist zazen meditation sessions. They became a regular fixture, listed among the Minster’s main “spiritual” activities, alongside its Sunday school and youth group, and were enthusiastically supported by the then Dean, the Very Rev Vivienne Faull.

The group was not a religious order and had never met within the cathedral, she said. “The chapter of York would not give permission for any such religious order to be set up at York Minster.”

But the new Dean of York Minster, the Right Rev Dr Jonathan Frost, who was installed in February, is believed to have decided to end the Minster’s association with the Zen group.

The sessions were initiated by Christopher Collingwood, the canon chancellor of the minster, who practises and teaches Zen meditation and has described himself as “religiously bilingual”. On his Twitter feed, Collingwood says he is “leader of York Zen Group (part of Wild Goose Zen Sangha in the White Plum Asanga)”.