Tale from the Crypt

Whilst licensing Paul Hinckley as Team Vicar in Marlow on Friday night, a very joyful thing to be doing, I was delighted to see what’s been going on recently in the crypt under All Saints. In place of Victorian Studded coffins, spiders and common or garden dust, the space has been done up by local Anglicans and Methodists working inpartnership as a Crypt Café for young people to gather.

Previous occupants have been moved to suitably tasteful consecrated local accommodation, and much creative thinking has gone into the remodelling of the building.The space has been superbly decorated and equipped, largely by volunteer labour, but with specialist advice and labour from the particpating congregations.

The aim is to provide a safe, friendly place for young people to gather for various activities. Stylish lighting makes the place really inviting, and the scale of the spaces under the arches is warm and welcoming, even if you're not dead. It’s very gratifying to see living community flourish in what was, literally, dead space. It makes me wonder what other hiden places there may around Bucks that could find a new lease of life

Mothering Sunday in Stewkley

Mothering Sunday morning began for me in Stewkley. It’s a busy hub vilage, with a thriving congregation, including children of all sizes, and a good smattering of real mothers of all ages.

St Michael’s Church is an amazing building — basically a Norman Minster Church that time forgot, apart from a few Victorian decorations. The footprint, and the feel as you walk through the door is almost exactly as it would have been in 1150! It’s simply never been nobbled or expanded since, with no side aisles, or even large windows. The West Door is pure Lord of the Rings, with twisted tail dragons chasing each other through a chevron pattern you find all around the Church.




Best of all, however, St Michael’s is no museum, but a vibrant heart to its community. Michelle Morton, the Vicar, has been hard at work in the Church school and with young families, and the parish has very able and caring lay leadership. It was great fun to celebrate God’s goodness in a place heaving with history, but also full of life. Revolution by Tradition! Avanti!

More Rudiments of Wisdom

At a time many feel “We have seen the best of our time: machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our grave,” here’s a poem to help, by Moshe Safdie, architect of the children’s memorial at Yad Vashem:

He who seeks truth shall find beauty

He who seeks beauty shall find vanity

He who seeks order shall find gratification,

He who seeks gratification shall be disappointed

He who considers himself the servant of his fellow beings
shall find the joy of self-expression

He who seeks self-expression shall fall into the pit of arrogance

Arrogance is incompatible with nature,
Through nature,
the nature of the unverse
and the nature of man,
we shall seek truth,
If we seek truth, we shall find beauty.

The Rudiments of Wisdom

I was at the toddler service at Buckingham Parish Church this Wednesday. Claire Wood was doing a wonderful storytelling job on the tale behind the famous icon you see everywhere (Left), explaining how Sarah really wanted a baby and couldn't seem to get one. She used this excellent Russian Doll (Right) for Sarah. And when the baby came, asked Claire, what kind of baby do you think it was? (boy? girl?) Quick as a flash young Eva replied, “One a lot less decorated than that one!”