Graffiti-Style Prayers: ‘Hear Us’ Brings Marginalized Voices into Canterbury Cathedral
(REVIEW) In recent weeks, visitors to Canterbury Cathedral in the U.K. have been surprised to find that parts of the building’s majestic architecture are currently daubed with eye-catching graffiti.
But this is not the work of vandals; the colorful graphics are part of a thought-provoking art installation centered on the idea of asking questions to God.
Titled “Hear Us”, the exhibition has been organized by art curator Jacquiline Creswell and poet Alex Vellis, who collaborated with marginalized groups living in Canterbury that felt the cathedral was not a place for them.
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Artist-led poetry workshops with members of the Punjabi community, Black and Brown diaspora, LGBTQIA+ people and neurodivergent individuals generated a series of questions for God, a selection of which have been rendered as bold, graffiti-style stickers and applied to the historic church’s walls, floors and pillars.
The stickers ask questions such as ‘God, do you know me?’, ‘What happens when we die?’, ‘Why is there so much pain and destruction?’, and ‘Does everything have a soul?’ And while the queries are not especially groundbreaking, they are the genuine, heartfelt responses of those who have felt marginalized and overlooked by the Christian church.
Vellis has, for a long time, been interested in organizing a project in which people are given the opportunity to ask God a question.
“People want to know their purpose and their place; they want to know what the point of everything is,” the Canterbury-based poet said. “Through prayer, you can ask those questions, but through community, you also get the opportunity to learn from each other. I wanted to create a project in which we could commune with God, but within a group setting so that we could all feel more accepted by the end of it.”
“These people believe in God,” Creswell said. “But they don’t feel welcome in the Cathedral. We wanted to find a way to give them a voice within this space that wouldn’t be overlooked, that would be powerful, that people would engage with and that they would understand.”
Since being announced, the exhibition has generated a storm of criticism, particularly online. Some clergy have described it as “facile” and “desecrating,” while others have complained that it has turned the mother church of the Anglican Communion into “an underground carpark.”
Even J.D. Vance and Elon Musk weighed in, taking to social media to voice their displeasure. The vice president wrote on X: “It is weird to me that these people don’t see the irony of honoring ‘marginalized communities’ by making a beautiful historical building really ugly.”
Unfazed by the high-profile criticism, Creswell said, “Vance and Musk are pillars of their communities, they are world leaders and must be extremely busy people. So I’m actually delighted that they have taken the time to research our exhibition and review it, before it even opened.”
But what about the many ordinary people who feel that the colorful graffiti is a step too far in this holy space? “We mean no disrespect,” said Creswell. “This temporary exhibition is a blink of an eye in the long history of the cathedral. My wish for those who are angry about our intervention is for them to visit Canterbury Cathedral and experience the real thing for themselves. My hope is for them to be moved by the questions, rather than what they look like, and be moved to ask God a question themselves.
“We’re not damaging but adding to the rich history of this cathedral,” Vellis added. “Everything on these walls is a form of prayer. By bringing people’s questions into this sacred space, we are saying: you are valid, your words are valid, and your prayers are in a place where they can be heard, seen and supported.”
Photos courtesy of Canterbury Cathedral
Most would agree that a place of worship is a wholly appropriate place in which to consider sincere questions of faith and meaning. Pilgrims and truth-seekers have been coming to Canterbury for more than 1,400 years in search of answers and continue to do so in Christian churches around the world. It is, then, the deliberately provocative form of the exhibition that has been the sticking point: the choice to use urban, graffiti-style graphics, which jar with the building’s sacred grandeur.
As the dean of Canterbury, the Very Rev. David Monteith, explained: “Graffiti is often the language of the unheard. It can be a way for the powerless to challenge injustice or inequity, but it can equally be an act of vandalism, division or intimidation. Whichever it is, the reaction graffiti provokes is visceral – and it is this emotional punch that we want “Hear Us” to have.”
Some have branded “Hear Us” an act of vandalism. Yet, temporary stickers that will leave no trace are hardly a cause for outrage. The cathedral has a long history of actual vandalism: Thomas Becket’s shrine was destroyed in 1538 on the orders of King Henry VIII during the English Reformation, and in the 1640s, Puritan iconoclasts destroyed numerous religious images and windows at Canterbury Cathedral during the English Civil War.
Much damage has also been done to the fabric of the building over the centuries as countless pilgrims have left their mark on its walls. Indeed, walk around the building today and you will see a large number of markings carved directly into the stone, from Mason’s marks and Christograms, to initials and devotional scrawls inscribed by visitors.
Since 2018, volunteers have been surveying, recording and sharing this historic graffiti as part of The Canterbury Cathedral Historic Graffiti Research Project. It is this research that inspired Creswell to explore the contemporary graffiti aesthetic.
“When I first pitched the idea to Dean David, there were sharp intakes of breath,” she explained. “He needed a little bit of persuading, but when we discussed the newfound interest in this historical graffiti and the research that the cathedral is doing, he bought into the idea.
“I worked very closely with the Clerk of Works in the cathedral, and I had a selection of vinyls produced that we tested over a couple of months,” Creswell continued. “Having worked in these spaces for many years, I was very mindful of the importance of protecting the fabric of the building. All of the vinyl has been placed by a professional installer who will also be removing them.”
In many cases, the questions are exhibited in thoughtful dialogue with the building. For instance, the question “God, why are you indifferent to suffering?” has been placed near one of the Miracle Windows of the Corona Chapel — a series of 12th- and 13th-century stained glass windows featuring depictions of healing miracles attributed to Saint Thomas Becket.
The project’s bright colors have also been informed by the cathedral’s windows, with every single hue used in the graffiti lettering deriving from the stained glass.
For Vellis, the exhibition “gives the lone voice the ability to ask the big questions, to resonate with thousands of others who have thought the same, and the safety that anonymity provides to be truly honest with ourselves.”
But what is missing from the exhibition is any sense of Christianity’s radical and world-changing answer to these questions, which is ultimately found in Jesus Christ and his gospel. As the Bible says: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have (1 Peter 3:15)”. It is therefore imperative that the cathedral does not let this opportunity pass by.
“This is the beginning of a journey,” said Creswell. “We have spoken to the Dean and clergy here, and I’m hoping that they will take it a step further by using these questions as a portal into faith conversations with these marginalized communities.”
Vellis added: “We’ve helped people take the first step, and whether or not they choose to follow on from that is entirely up to them. There are people involved with this project who had never been to Canterbury Cathedral before because they didn’t feel welcome. But now they want to be here because they have found a place for their voice to be heard. That’s incredibly powerful, and the church has a really fantastic opportunity here to extend its hands out to various communities that are already reaching up. How often do you have marginalized people coming to church, saying, ‘let me in’?”
“Hear Us” will be on display at Canterbury Cathedral through Jan. 18, 2026.
David Trigg is a writer and art historian based in the U.K. He is the host of the “Exhibiting Faith” podcast. You can find him on Instagram @davidtriggwriter.