By Kenton Smith
A Thin Place
There are rural churches within the Pastrow Parish which are special places, nestling quietly within their own churchyard, a quintessential element of this green and pleasant land. They are places of great serenity, immaculately kept by those unsung heroes, the cleaners, flower arrangers and carers of these sacred spaces. Entering early on a Sunday morning when it is empty and quiet, the building enfolds with an almost tangible sense of peace. The Iona community have a special phrase for locations where the barriers between the temporal and the eternal are not as strong: a “thin place”. There are those who would say that there are churches within Pastrow that are just such places.
The quiet and serenity on a Sunday morning usual evolves when the first person arrives. It’s usually one of the churchwardens, ready to open up the vestry and set up for the service. Even then the peace is not broken or diminished. As others arrive the ambience is transformed into a sense of warmth and community as people arrive, greet each other and break into pleasant chatter and conversation. Some might say that such things are best left outside the formality of this type of worship event. But surely it adds to the occasion: it shows the warmth that exists within these special places.
There may be some who would suggest that the formality of the style of worship employed is rigid and inflexible: that it is too formal. The alternative view is that the liturgy gives order and structure that has been tested by time, matured by tradition and experience. Moreover anybody, everybody, is welcome to come and sit in the church for all or part of the service; free to sit and just be as is appropriate for them, to come and go as they please, or to stop and ask questions. In the end, it doesn’t matter about a person’s religious tradition, whether one likes modern or old music, liturgy or differently ordered worship. Religion is the tool by which we explore our spirituality in a way that is appropriate for each of us, as individuals in community. What matters is that we can use this thin place to allow God (whatever you perceive Him/Her to be) to touch us all through, and because of, the Work of Christ Jesus.
‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
Matthew 7:7-8