Childhood Church...

Backblip

David and I headed down to my childhood village today to let me take more shots for the charity calendar. Unfortunately the weather was really, really dull and the light quality poor. No interesting clouds or shadows, just a monotonous grey sky and flat light. I’m not sure any of them are worth using.

This is the Parish Church in the village. It’s where I attended Sunday school in my very early years and one of my strongest memories is sitting in a circle with all the other children in the church hall, hoping to be the one chosen to go round the circle with the velvet bag gathering the collection, whilst every one sang “Dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping, hear the pennies fall. Everyone for Jesus, he shall have them all”.

Those words always puzzled me as I could never work out how the money actually got to Jesus and when it did, what did he spend it all on? I reckoned lots of sweets would be his first choice!

I was also baptised in this church age 7 (yes you read that right – age seven) and can clearly remember sitting in the vestry with my mum, waiting to join the service at the point I would be christened. I remember feeling a mixture of anxiety and excitement as I sat there with my new dress on ( sleeveless navy top with a full, white skirt with small navy daisies embroidered along the hemline and a little white cardigan with silver threads running through it). I remember the minister’s kind face as he dropped the cool water on my face.

Sadly, as commonly happens as children grow up, I found more exciting things to do on a Sunday morning and ceased attending but it still holds a special place in my heart. One regret I have is not getting married here. At the time there was no permanent minister so I got married in a church in a nearby town where my mum knew the minister well.

The congregation is still in decline and to my great sadness, I discovered recently that the church is under threat of closure. The community have rallied though and after a shout went out, bums are back on seats and hopefully when all the new houses are built and the regeneration is complete, the increased population in the village will see the church thrive again.

In the intervening years my belief in my religion has waxed and waned and currently I would describe myself an agnostic.