Something this last fall’s trip to England did not allow that my first trip did was the opportunity to sneak in and have a quiet moment in the many churches we came across.  I still got to walk through York Minster and into the entry area of St. Paul’s.  We even attended a service at a church in Haworth, where the Bronte patriarch had been rector.

Niall Gooch just posted a short essay that captures a lot of what I think about and hope for, and he does it by reflecting on England’s ecclesial landscape.  From the essay:

Christianity has left a powerful mark in the British landscape, just as it has in our laws and culture. Whether or not we approve of or believe in the faith is irrelevant. Its physical legacy in our countryside and towns is a fact. Even non-Christians feel the draw of locations “where prayer has been valid”, as Eliot puts it in Little Gidding. If you doubt this, consider the vast crowds who visit cathedrals each year, and perhaps more significantly the steady stream of visitors to even the most humble of parish churches. It’s not uncommon when perusing the visitor book in churches to come across phrases like “such a peaceful, prayerful spot” or “a wonderful place to just sit and be still”. The feeling of reverence that doubters and sceptics have for such places has never been more beautifully expressed than in Philip Larkin’s masterpiece “Church Going.” Larkin was nobody’s idea of a devout Christian, but many critics have noted his continuing preoccupation with churches and the fundamental religious questions. At the core of Church Going is the insight that churches cannot and will not cease to be places of meaning and exploration, even if they are no longer used for organised Christian worship, “Since someone will forever be surprising/A hunger in himself to be more serious/And gravitating with it to this ground/Which he once heard was proper to grow wise in /If only that so many dead lie round.”

He goes on to talk about the thinking of Rod Dreher (which I need to get to here some time soon), thoughts about culture and buildings and beliefs and rediscovering a necessary rootedness as we move further into the 21st century.

You can read the whole essay here.  I think you’ll like it.

(photo of Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London; hat tip for the essay to Rod Dreher)