 |
| St Thomas's Church, North Willingham |
This morning I went to North Willingham, a village (population 180) about eleven miles from Caistor, to take a service. It's a fourteenth century building with lots of later additions and alterations and really it feels like a Georgian church. One thing which has never been added is a heating system but everyone is offered a hot water bottle as they come in! It's wonderful!
 |
| Looking east |
Sadly some parts of the church are no longer useable as they are unsafe but despite cold, a deteriorating building, a lack of an organist and small numbers, God was praised as Christians came together in this small Lincolnshire village. Long may it continue.
 |
| West Gallery |
Just beautiful. Our Church has heating but it takes forever to warm up, the only time it is really warm is over Easter when it is left on for 4 days. There are so many of these beautiful little churches now with low attendance, religion is not fashionable apparently but we are bombing each other to death. Is there a paradox there.
ReplyDeleteYes even the churches with heating take forever to get warm. Tobe honest I think the hot water bottle solution is brilliant as I think that putting the heating on for long periods for a service which will last about an hour, is crazy.
DeleteSuch a pretty church...but it must be very chilly in Winter!
ReplyDeleteThat's the understatement of the year!
DeleteSuch a pretty little church -- I hope it continues a long time as well.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is pretty. I think it's great that each village has its own church it's own work of art developed and cherished over the centuries.
DeleteWow. My absolute favorite thing we saw when we visited Ireland was a very old church/ abbey. We don't have buildings that can date as far back here. You could feel the history in the walls. We were also the only people visiting so the solitude and silence lent to much deeper thought and observation.
ReplyDeleteI can hardly wrap my head around the idea of a church with 12 to 15 people. I think there are usually more kids then that in my son's Kindergarten age Sunday school class (we do attend a mega church). Wow... I can only imagine. You have my mind imagining a whole different world.
Hi Rivulet! Most Sundays I am ministering in small congregations like this. People dread the thought of their village church being boarded up so they don't want to travel to the towns for worship. These churches are an important everyday witness to God in each village rvrm if they have only one or two services each month. The faithfulness of the congregations is humbling and inspiring.
DeleteOh how specail. I'm sure people come prepared and apprecaite the service all the more becasue it isn't catering to the current entertainment mode of church goers.
ReplyDeleteNicely put, Sam. They are there not for entertainment but to deepen their love of God.
DeleteHow wonderful and heartening to know that services are still going on despite the difficulties. Looks like an amazing church with so much history.
ReplyDeleteIt is! An no-one even thinks about the difficulties during the worship.
DeleteFor where two or three gather in my name there am I with them. Matthew 18:20
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that someone worked out how to play the hymns. A good idea about the hot water bottles. Long may it continue.
There's real determination to keep the Lord's house open in villges so two or three can still gather there.
DeleteAnd God Bless vicars that will come out of semi(?) retirement to preach the message.
ReplyDeleteI think I speak for many vicars when I say we feel privileged to do so but bless you for saying so.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely old building! And hot water bottles - how cute! I'm lucky in that my church has both heating and air-conditioning (recently installed) and we have velvet cushions on the pews so I am now feeling very pampered. The heating system does make a lot of clunking noises though but it's a large building (in Canada) and we would freeze without it so a little bit of noise isn't so bad. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou will often find velvet cushions on oews but they tend to feel a bit damp sometimes. The big thing around here is tapestry kneelers and seat pads. I will try ad take photos of a few good ones.
Delete