Return our silk cloak, donor’s grandson tells Christ Church, claiming it has rarely been seen
A ROW has broken out over a 19th-century silk cloak donated to the Dean of Christ Church College and Cathedral.
The grandson of the donor is seeking the return of the Whittingham Cope, a liturgical vestment, after struggling to find out if anyone even knew where it is.
Dr Selby Whittingham, a leading art historian, was a student at Oxford University in the 1960s, when he watched his grandmother formally donate her treasured textile to the Dean.
He said: “I’d had a correspondence some years ago, which was very unsatisfactory. I’d had no proper response.”
He is also dismayed by Christ Church’s handling of a feud involving Dean Martyn Percy, who was suspended in 2018 over alleged misconduct in a pay dispute and then fully exonerated by an internal tribunal.
A tribunal will hear a claim by a woman who alleges that he stroked her hair and complimented her on her appearance. He denies the allegation and his supporters – including alumni, college staff and undergraduates – have come to his defence, while he is suspended. Dr Whittingham, who does not know Dean Percy, said: “I read more and more about the saga in the press about Christ Church. I gather lots of donors are withdrawing promises and gifts. It just seems a scandal.”
It is decades since he last saw the Chinese silk, originally a mandarin’s robe, but he recalls its embroidered dragons.
On Aug 10, he wrote to Dr Steven Croft, Bishop of Oxford, that he was seeking support in his demand that Christ Church return the cope presented to it by Edith Whittingham-Jones, in 1962: “Dean Cuthbert Simpson donned it for our benefit and said he was pleased to accept it for use in the Cathedral. The Professor of Chinese had declared the Chinese symbolism compatible with Christian ideas.”
The cathedral said: “The cope is in our safekeeping. It is a beautiful vestment that has been worn and appreciated by our clergy on numerous occasions. The fabric has become extremely fragile, and our embroiderers have advised us against regular use. The Cathedral Chapter will discuss Dr Whittingham’s request for the return of the cope at its next meeting.”