Ring out the bells!

December 2013

In our cities now a church building can easily be dwarfed by the surrounding blocks of flats, shopping centres and offices but when old churches were originally built it seemed appropriate that they should be much higher than all the buildings around them.   Here in our village the church can still be seen for miles around but we have other ways of obscuring its significance, chiefly by thinking of it as an interesting, beautiful, but largely irrelevant, ancient monument.  For the last year church services have alternated each week between Burton and Holme with the other building lying empty on a Sunday morning, but our two Church Councils have recently decided that, from January, Morning Worship will be held in both churches every week.  We have agreed to service times of 9.15am at Holme and 11.15am at Burton. 

Why might this be significant?  To have in any village a weekly gathering to worship the Lord Jesus Christ is significant.  The trail of people heading for the church declares to the other rulers and ‘gods’ of our age that there are some who still firmly believe that Jesus is really King of Kings and Lord of Lords; the open door proclaims that the church is still a welcoming place of refuge for those who see their own brokenness, and the loud singing calls to others saying, “you are living in God’s world as if he isn’t there, come back to your senses and return to him”.  Maybe one day we will even find a way to ring the bells again and call the village to worship the living God and his great Son.  As Mary was told about her soon-to-be-born son, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High … his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:32-33)

Assuring you of a sincere welcome at any service and wishing you all a very Happy Christmas,

Graham Burrows