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| Stone Formation Archive 1986 |
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 Stone Formations news, views, gallery and archive brought to you by Weird Wiltshire Introduction Latest News News Archive Stonehenge Stonehenge Project Stonehenge 360 Avebury Saviours Stones Village Solstice Wayland Smithy Long Barrow Woodhenge Gallery Summer Solstice Gallery 2002 Summer Solstice Gallery 2004 Postcards Wallpaper Links 
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First
published on April 3, 1986 THE Bishop of Salisbury, the Right Rev John Baker, says he is totally-opposed to the pop festival taking place at Stonehenge at the time of the summer solstice. Farmers applauded his forthright condemnation of the festival in a statement read at a meeting in Devizes of the Wiltshire branch of the National Farmers' Union. "The experience of the years has proved that the event was a major social and human evil," said the Bishop. "The great majority of people living in nearby communities hated the event, and wish it to cease. The Church cannot and must not support such an event in any way, and I wish to state officially, as bishop of the diocese, that it does not." The Bishop declared the Church's support for local communities, in their desire to go about their lives in peace; landowners, both private and corporate, in their legal right to refuse the use of their land, and in their moral right not to be pressured into conceding it; and the police in their duty to uphold the law of country. The Bishop added: "The way to prevent violence and confrontation this summer is for those who are thinking of defying that law to stay away. I hope and pray they will. They have no encouragement of any kind from our church to do otherwise." In making his statement, he knew he was speaking for 'the vast majority of our people in this diocese.' The Bishop's statement has been given wide circulation, including the chairmen of Wiltshire and Dorset County councils, the chief constables of Wiltshire and Dorset County Councils, the chief constables of Wiltshire and Dorset, and all MPs and MEPs in the Salisbury diocese. Back to 1986 index |
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