Tuesday 7 October 2008

A Little Change.


Change is, generally, a good thing. The change in the English language from Beowulf, written above in Anglo Saxon, to the Middle English of Chaucer and the beautiful freedom of Joyce is a movement of descriptive syntax as powerful as the freight train it would be impossible to describe without said change. We expect to see the way we express our faith change and we altar what we say. Today I spent an hour or so with thirty small children, telling them about our Church and why we do what we do. Having them walking around our arcades in procession wearing chasubles and carrying candles, playing at the font and learning about the faith was as much fun for me as it seemed to be for them. I was pleased that they said that we were more 'exciting than the Methodist Church' they saw last week! They went home with candles and the Hail Mary.

The heritage society who came also had a look round, but without the practical demonstrations and the repeated sprinkling of holy water. The couple of men who came in to find peace and light a candle were as welcome as the dozen for daily Mass and the dozens at the cafe. Each went with a different, changed opinion of us, I felt today, for there was grace hanging in the air, gathered during the morning rosary for this feast celebrated today of Our Lady of the Rosary. The beads need working overtime if we are to get over the current problems in the Church wrought by those who seek to suggest change and then, having got that, to wreck all that went before to suit their new world. Cromwell would feel at home in certain Vicarages today.

A fine change also in the blog today, Thom has been working overtime to change the layout. All the work, design and execution is his and to him do our thanks go.