The little church on a hill

This is the church I became a member of just before I got married.  I had newly returned to the faith after a few years of being a clear-minded atheist.  I taught Sunday School for a number of years to JC students but I soon discovered that teaching in church was not my cup of tea.  But it's important to me that I fulfil my vow of "prayers, presence, gifts, service" which many modern churchgoers do not see as needful and I'm not surprised if many don't even know what I'm referring to.  I've found my niche again, this time as a part of the church wind ensemble.  This is probably the only "service" I can do.  I don't think I will ever teach in Sunday School again because my views may not be looked upon as orthodox.  I'm not averse to mouthing orthodox platitudes as a part of the liturgy but I'm not sure I can teach it without giving my students the full picture of what truth really is.  Truth is vitally important to me and it would be a lie for me to say that the Bible is the inerrant word of God or even that it's reliable.  I've been able for decades (since I was a little boy) to gloss over all the obvious biblical errors and pretend that there were no errors by stretching the meaning of particular words to breaking point but as I age, I find it increasingly difficult to keep up this falsehood.  Errors are errors and deliberate lies are deliberate lies whether they are found in our cherished Bible or elsewhere and it's futile to overlook the lies and errors just because the Bible means so much to us.


I had not realised how pretty the church is.  Here's a pic I took as I waited for the traffic lights to turn green.  I wound down my windscreen just to take this pic for this blog and I had to do it quickly as I was attracting stares from the motorists next to me.

Here's a pic I took before the evening service:

We had a rehearsal for the 125th Anniversary Service and we had a good turn-out which included 5 trumpets, 2 tubas, 2 flutes and a clarinet.  There'll be many more at the actual service.  It was pouring when the rehearsal ended at 8pm but I had arrived early and my car was parked in the church.