Since there were no protestant congregations in evidence in Hurst Green (along with a grocery, pharmacy or any store other than a hair dresser), we went four miles down the road this morning to the village of Whalley. I found the church there by searching on the internet as the closest to our hotel. There, we attended the Whalley Methodist Church a fairly new congregation--for England--being established in the early 1800’s and moving to its current home in the 1850’s.
Interestingly, they had the oldest style pews. The kind that have a center divider that is a low wall running down the middle. There was beautiful memorial stain glass windows in the back (of the Madonna and child and of St. Francis—strange for a Methodist Church it seemed to me). They did however prove their Methodist credentials by having windows featuring John and Charles Wesley as well.
Worship was much like what I am accustomed to although they did not have an order of service—the second of the churches in Britain to lack this item. The pastoral prayer followed the sermon which also gave a different feel to things.
The minister was a previous one for the congregation who was filling in while their current minister was away. So far three weeks, three churches, and three pastor’s on vacation. It seems to be a trend. Why is everyone avoiding me!
The sermon was on the man called Legion and the pastor spoke of the invasive powers that try to control our lives. Interestingly, he is an actor now and will have a role in a History Channel special called “Crimes That Shocked The British Nation.” As chief magistrate I believe if you want to watch for him.
The people were very friendly, and we were the talk of the small congregation. Some of them apparently thought that Kentucky is near the Florida coast. It was unlike the churches in Oxford that were very diverse and quite accustomed to foreign visitors. I think they don’t have many visitors generally and international ones are particularly rare. We were definitely embraced by the congregation.
We did notice one strange thing that the minister jokingly half-apologized for after the service. On the left front at a caddy corner was a screen where the words to the songs were projected. On the right a beautiful banner of the ten commandments. Well not exactly—strangely they began with commandment number 5.
These are basically the part of the Decalogue that deal with the ethical treatment of others. The church did show signs from the other displays in the sanctuary of having concern for social justice, so I thought that perhaps that was the reason for the odd omission of the first four commands.
Then when the service was over, the screen was raised and there hidden behind it was the other half of the banner. “We’re back to all ten”, the minister laughed while talking to me.
It did make me think that sometimes in the name of being modern and contemporary the church can cover up God’s presence and what we owe our author and maker. This was certainly not the case at Whalley Methodist, but they unintentionally seemed to tell that story with their use of technology.
I came away impressed that there are times that we accidentally tell the wrong story.
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