What would you do if Dippy the Dinosaur came to our church? I bet you weren’t expecting that question, were you?

Well, you might want to know who Dippy the Dinosaur is before you can answer the question, right? Well, Dippy isn’t another version of Barney, the beloved-by-children, optimistic, purple T-rex who teaches through songs and dance routines. No, Dippy the Dinosaur is “a plaster cast replica of the fossilized bones of a Diplodocus carnegii skeleton” who normally resides in London. 

Four years ago, Dippy the Dinosaur left his home at the Natural History Museum in London and traveled all about England on a tour of British ‘museums.’  One stop along his journey was not a museum, though. It was church…a very big church: Norwich Cathedral. The eighty-five-foot-long Dippy took up residence for four months in the nave of the 800-year-old cathedral. Over 234,000 people came to visit Dippy in those four months! That’s a lot of visitors to one church in just a third of a year! Can you imagine a quarter of a million people traipsing through Pinnacle’s sanctuary over a three-month period?

Well, you might be wondering why I even know about Dippy’s little sojourn in Norwich (which lies about 100 miles northeast of London)? Well, as it happens, I visited Norwich Cathedral about 25 years ago, to visit an acquaintance who was the organist-choir-director there at that time. It was amazing to explore the cathedral and to realize that Christian worship had been going on in that space for eight centuries!

A couple of weeks ago, I was wondering if that organist, David Dunnett, was still at Norwich Cathedral. So, I searched the internet and found a YouTube video of a recital David was giving in Norwich just one year ago. “Cool!” I thought, “He’s still there.” As I sat watching the video, I noticed (I mean, how could I miss it!) a giant dinosaur in the middle of the church…right where the people are supposed to be sitting. A dinosaur in church?! What’s that all about?

I had to do some research. What I found was a lot about the dinosaur’s draw:

The Dean of Norwich, the Very Rev Jane Hodges, said the popularity of Dippy, its accompanying exhibition, and other events, had been "…truly amazing. Our prehistoric guest has been so incredibly popular and inspired so many people of all ages," she said. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-59039396

Inspired so many? To do what? To think about God? What I didn’t find was any theological discussion on the impact of Dippy’s taking up residence in an ancient place of Christian worship.

Did the cathedral see itself as just another of the eight “venues” Dippy visited?

Did the cathedral see Dippy’s popularity as a way to welcome a quarter of a million people who might not otherwise have stepped into the church, creating a place of hospitality for strangers?

Did the cathedral want to show that faith and science were not incompatible?

I am not sure. What I did wonder about was what people at Pinnacle would think of an 85-foot, prehistoric guest taking up residence down our middle aisle for several months.

What is this? It’s just a gimmick! It’s an abomination! It’s an eyesore! How much is this costing us? What do Dinosaurs have to do with Jesus?

On the Monday after preaching a sermon on “distractions” to our devotional and faith life, I would hope that whatever occurs in our sanctuary focuses our attention on God and the love that God has shown us through Jesus.

But if not dinosaurs, what will draw people to church?” someone might ask. My wager, as a pastoral theologian, is that our witness to the world should always be one of hospitality, welcoming the stranger in our midst. As the hymn says, “They will know we are Christian by our love.”  What do you think will draw people in? What do you think about dinosaurs in worship? What best helps you focus on God’s love for us in Jesus?

To learn more about Dippy the Dinosaur (at Norwich Cathedral) watch the video below.