Free Republic

WILLIAMSBURG (AP) -- Officials at the College of William & Mary have settled on a place in a college chapel to display the case that will house the Wren Cross. A committee appointed to make a recommendation announced Monday that the cross and its case will be placed near the east door at the front of the chapel. The recommendation was endorsed by college President Gene R. Nichol and Michael Powell, who as college rector heads the Board of Visitors. The school said that the display case is still under development, adding that it "will be accompanied by a plaque...

WILLIAMSBURG -- The removal of a cross from the College of William & Mary's chapel has inspired petitions, letters to the editor, opinion columns and Web journal entries. Yesterday, a half-dozen critics and supporters of President Gene R. Nichol's decision to put the cross in storage had the chance to express their opinions to the public school's Board of Visitors. The board, which previously deferred to Mr. Nichol's judgment, did not take any action. But Rector Michael K. Powell said board members had received numerous communications about the cross and thought it was important to invite people on both sides...

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) - As a Catholic, Vince Haley often went to Mass at the College of William and Mary's historic Wren Chapel when he was an undergraduate in the 1980s. Also a Catholic, school President Gene R. Nichol often goes to the 120-seat chapel alone at night to think in the quiet. Both agree the chapel is a sacred space meaningful to students, alumni, faculty and staff of the public school who use it for religious services and secular events. They clash, though, over what to do with an unadorned, 18-inch brass cross that had been displayed on the...