The Church of England is an interesting thing. We are one of the few nations of the world which is constitutionally Christian - the Church of England is an "established" church, and its bishops have representation in our upper house of government (the House of Lords). Imagine the Episcopal Church having unelected senators in the US senate...
The reason that this exists is that the English have a unique relationship with religion, which I won't describe here. Suffice to say that we are highly variable in our attendance of church services, let alone those who profess other faiths, or no faiths.
The result is that church congregations tend to be dominated by the elderly. Even though Christian services are built into the fabric of England's best schools (which "The Economist" ranks as being the best globally), and our top universities are built on Christian foundations that remain (only members of the Church of England could study at Oxford and Cambridge for the first 600 years of their existence), the younger generations have a very English relationship with their churches.
I rather like this haiku: is the sunlight the Grace itself? It reminds me of the sunbeam on a Sunday service, in which dust motes hung in the air, illuminated by the intense ray of light. The heads that it illuminated varied from children to adults, but most heads were elderly and greying.
The haiga is completed by a cheeky iPad photograph of some of last year's crop from our apple trees - a very local exhibition of the same grace, maybe.
The Church of England is an interesting thing. We are one of the few nations of the world which is constitutionally Christian - the Church of England is an "established" church, and its bishops have representation in our upper house of government (the House of Lords). Imagine the Episcopal Church having unelected senators in the US senate...
ReplyDeleteThe reason that this exists is that the English have a unique relationship with religion, which I won't describe here. Suffice to say that we are highly variable in our attendance of church services, let alone those who profess other faiths, or no faiths.
The result is that church congregations tend to be dominated by the elderly. Even though Christian services are built into the fabric of England's best schools (which "The Economist" ranks as being the best globally), and our top universities are built on Christian foundations that remain (only members of the Church of England could study at Oxford and Cambridge for the first 600 years of their existence), the younger generations have a very English relationship with their churches.
I rather like this haiku: is the sunlight the Grace itself? It reminds me of the sunbeam on a Sunday service, in which dust motes hung in the air, illuminated by the intense ray of light. The heads that it illuminated varied from children to adults, but most heads were elderly and greying.
The haiga is completed by a cheeky iPad photograph of some of last year's crop from our apple trees - a very local exhibition of the same grace, maybe.
Toodlepip,
Hobbes