I went to church on Sunday

To be honest it wasn’t of my own accord, I was at a Christening. I didn’t realise that whilst you attended the ceremony you also had to attend the full Sunday service. I initially woke up tired and grumpy, wanting to support my friends and their little boy but an hour and a half of listening to the Bible wasn’t appealing.

Once I’d had my porridge and coffee (diets still going well) I was more equipped to match the mood of the morning.  I was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the church and its grounds were. I love history and found the church itself a treasure box of history and mystery. There was a stairwell that led to nowhere and a plaque on the wall listing the priests who have lead the congregations there. The first vicar being John (no surname) who began proceedings in the year 1200! If only my family tree research went back that far!

We were seated and the Christening went very well with the baby in question being a happy soul and found the whole thing more amusing than upsetting, you see so many children screaming their tiny lungs out during the event.

As I mentioned the usual Sunday service commenced and the regulars went up for the bread and wine, I was approached by the vicar who asked if I was Christened/Christian and I said no but he gave me a blessing never the less. A sweet gesture but I either have the face of a sinner or he saw the wheelchair and thought I needed as much help as I could get.

Being in church made me contemplate religion as a whole, lately I’ve had lengthy conversations with people of different faiths.  I love the community feel of belonging to something and the faith that that religion stands for giving its followers advice/guidelines on how they should live and a readymade support network in times of need.

I went to a predominantly Christian primary school and never questioned the hymns or daily recital of the Lord ’s Prayer, I suppose back then I did believe in God. But with the years of personal and family problems I questioned how a higher power could let all the bad things happen – the greater good didn’t make sense any more. 

These days I don’t believe in any one religion, I can only be a good person, do good deeds and if there is a God at least there isn’t anything I could be kept out of Heaven for.  Living with a scientist who works in the field of Geology means that the closest thing to religion I get is the theory of Evolution and Darwin as our ruler.

In high sight this is probably a good thing since on my way out of the church using very questionable wooden ramps (I can’t really complain, they have 800year old building to contend with and at least they’re trying!) my friend lost his footing almost dropping me, and with the fright I kicked a church goer up the bottom – I may go to hell! But I was just thankful that the vicar had moved from that church goers spot seconds before, otherwise I could have listed “kicking a man of the church” to my list of sins – never good I feel!

L x