Very occasionally I am blessed with a moment to just ‘be’ in Church without having to actively ‘do’ something. And when I am, I love to sit and witness the way people, especially visitors, interact with the space.

There are some who know exactly what they have come for and swiftly head to one of the pricket stands to light a candle, or to the Chancel to pray. Others will chat to one of our wonderful welcomers and ask about the history of the building or directions to the tower, or the youngest of our visitors might weave joyfully in and out of the pews. For many though, they will enter through the High Street door, take a quick visual survey of where they are and then begin to journey across the west end of the church. People undertake this route at variable pace but, almost invariably, at some point on it, they stop. Turn. And look up…

Sometimes people intentionally acknowledge the altar or look at the Vouet ‘Madonna and Child’ in the Chancel, but more often people simply find themselves lingering not far from the chancellor’s chair, facing east, as their eye is drawn from altar, to pulpit, to organ, to ceiling and round the building, as they have a moment of pause to simply stand in awe. In one such moment my own little one alerted me to the fact that the organ case and pipes look like Jesus smiling with his eyes closed!

Sometimes people share what happens for them in these moments, or more often they simply go on with their day. But, I am confident that these tiny snatches of pause have the ability to help shape our day and our outlook in ways we cannot engineer. We cannot make anyone encounter God, or be moved by beauty, or to consider that perhaps in the vastness of the universe there is a space where we can be intimately known; but we can create the space and opportunity for these experiences and encounters to occur.

Whether you are new, visiting, or have worshipped here for years, I hope you will find your own moment this summer to pause in the space and open yourself to the depth of faith it holds; to find something new to marvel at, or simply to look up and ponder the One to whose glory it was built.