Congregation...

I had a look around the church at Aylsham this morning. There was some kind of service being held in a side chapel, and the first words I heard were “almighty and everlasting God”. I wonder how many times these exact words have been used over the last 2,000 years.

What I remember most about services in the school chapel, 50 years ago, was the repetition. The chaplain chanted something, and we replied, in our sing-song voices, with the required response. Didn’t anyone have anything new to say, or did this represent the limit of our religious lexicon? It seemed stale, derivative, ludicrous. But what can you say that’s new about a deity who has been inconveniently absent for two millennia?

The man leading the service in Aylsham Church was dressed in white, and he extended his arms to either side - like a crucifixion without a cross - as though to bless the tiny congregation of people. They all looked older than me…

Not Aylsham... but the nearby church at Salle...