Peace be within thy walls

: and plenteousness within thy palaces.

Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling.

I occasionally head up there for a quiet half hour and some marvelous blipping. There are a number of collection bowls around the entrance and church, that ask politely for a donation to the upkeep of the beautiful building. And every time I go, I leave a small donation, sometimes only spare change, sometimes a couple of pounds.

Today on arrival I was greeted with a large sign that informed me that photography was only permitted on purchase of a permit for the costly sum of £1.

After chatting with one of the wardens, it appears that the church, a tremendously important part of Stirling and Scotland's historical fabric, is suffering from lack of funds.

Now this makes me angry.

I have been invited to donate money to various causes over the last year, some worthy, but some quite frankly ridiculous.
"Adopt an interpreter"
"Befriend a criminal"
"Aid a substance abuser"

My taxes go to pay for the liquid plasma tv's, Sky + and fags of those who cannot be arsed to work for a living.
My council tax pays for incredibly important things like landscaping roundabouts.

The list goes on.
But here we have an incredibly important and frankly magnificent building, having to beg for a few pounds to keep going.

It turns out, that there have over the last few weeks been a number of "professional" photographers, who have pitched up, with several cameras, tripods, etc. and proceeded to disrupt the peaceful and tranquil church with the clatter of shutters, and not even place a donation to the upkeep on leaving.
And several of these guys will be making a living at this.

I'm ashamed to be a photographer if I am going to be associated with people who do this. I'm going to suggest that every blipper in Stirling gets in touch with me to see if we can't all donate at least one photograph to either sell for the fund or have made into something that can.

It's the least we can do. Lets give something back guys. Most of our palaces are plenteous enough.

vikvet@aol.co.uk