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The Right to Roam
Thinking back, the best thing about the summer this year was when it ended. We were told by the pundits that we had the wettest August since records began. As the said records only began in 1961, by which time most of us had grown up, that is hardly a credible statistic. Childhood summers were, as I recall, characterised by lowering clouds and torrential downpours. As the favourite topic of conversation in England is the weather this gave us something to talk about.
As far as the churches in this parish were concerned, summer was a wow. Over July and August we managed five weddings and twelve baptisms. These brought in a whole host of new faces, crowds of people who would never have crossed our thresholds, and lots of assorted small change in the collections.
Therein lies the rub. The people who support the work of these churches, week in and week out, come rain or shine, pour in huge amounts of hard-earned cash only to find their space invaded by a mob of relative strangers grubbing about in their pockets for the smallest possible piece of coinage to put in the collection. Those who normally attend other churches bung in folding money or a two pound coin.
It is like buying a nice detached house in the country, with a big garden, and then finding that the Ramblers™ Association have discovered a right of way straight across the lawn and exercise their right to roam. But this is the Church of England. Anyone who is domiciled in this realm has a perfect right to be married in one of our churches or to have themselves or their children baptized here. We could discourage them by having baptisms at six o'clock on a Tuesday morning or by insisting on nine month marriage preparation classes on a Saturday night, but we do not.
Anyway, I like visitors in church. They laugh at my jokes. The regular congregation have heard the both of them so many times that the novelty has worn off. I also hope against hope that someone, some time, will come back to join us on a regular basis. It has happened. Christianity is all about mission and evangelism and we can't do that without people.
May God bless you all, Fr Allan
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