THE Commission appointed to advise on the choice of a church to serve temporarily as the cathedral of the new diocese of Portsmouth has a delicate task before it. At its session on Saturday last four claims were considered. That of St. Thomas of Canterbury, the parish church of Portsmouth, was weak enough, except on historical grounds, for the church accommodates only 700 and is actually still pew-rented. St. Mary’s, Portsea, is dignified and spacious. But there are cogent reasons against the choice of St. Mary’s, though it has long been considered to have the reversion to the title. We agree entirely with its vicar’s plea against taking St. Mary’s as a pro-cathedral, for it would be unfair to disorganize the church and parish for a temporary use, and there would be some risk that the diocese might remain content with it. On the whole, it seems desirable that the Commission’s choice should fall on one of the other two churches, St. Matthew’s or St. Cuthbert’s. Sooner or later the diocese will have the desire to build a real cathedral, if not on the scale or at the pace of Liverpool, at least of a dignity commensurate with the importance of the see-city, and of the many interests of the new diocese. Rivalries would disappear, and Portsmouth would share the experience of Truro and Liverpool that the building of a cathedral welds a new diocese into its proper unity.
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