A Liturgical Mystery

Having visited the church at Compton in Surrey, just outside Guildford, I am left with unanswered questions. The bulk of the Church was built in the 10th and 11th centuries with some later additions. Foremost among these were the 12th century additions to the chancel. A low vault was built over the altar and an upper room was inserted. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner wonders about the liturgical function of such a space. Was it used, in the time before rood lofts, for the proclamation of the Gospel on major feasts? If so, then the Reader of the Gospel remained unseen from much of the church. There is evidence of such an arrangement at a number of places in England, notably at the Imperial Basilica at Melbourne in Derbyshire and at Elkstone in Gloucestershire. But only here has the upper room survived intact, still with its original 12th century wooden guard-rail - one of the oldest pieces of woodwork surviving in England.

Whatever it was intended for, it's marvellous to think of all the wonders that lie hidden away just off the main road in all parts of our country. That part of Surrey, just below the great ridge known as ;The Hog's Back' is particularly beautiful scenically. Here is a view over Compton Lake taken from just outside the church itself. It's a strange thing, but whatever county of Enlgand I am in, I end up thinking it's the most beautiful - whether it be Hertfordshire, Essex, Surrey - or perhaps next week Somerset, when I go down to spend what I like to think of as a well-earned rest in Porlock.

I think I have by now worked out what a blog is for - it is perhaps what used to be called a 'commonplace book' simply recording things that strike one as noteworthy.

Thinking of The Hog's Back, I was invited to a child's birthday party this week - a Filipino family. At the centre of the banquet was a whole roast pig, that they had been cooking on a spit on the patio for most of the day. For me it was a novel experience to go up when I wanted something to eat and slice it from the pig. The pig didn't seem too unhappy - it's right foreleg seemed to be waving - pity I didn't have my camera!

I was also moved this week to write a letter to the Tablet. Correspondents had been writing objecting to communion being given on the tongue rather than in the hand. One was concerned about the 'sexual overtones' of this practice. Another was concerned that the people were being 'infantilized' and dominated. I am glad that I don't live in the same world as these people. If we are conscious as we receive communion that we are meeting Christ, receiving His Body and Blood, then surely anything else is peripheral? What room is there here for mere human considerations, even if they were sane? There are some very sad people in the world who clearly devote great amounts of time to thinking of peculiar ways to attack the Church.

I also had a letter from a lady in Wales warning of three days and nights of total darkness during which Christians should not venture out of doors under any circumstances. And after these three days and nights then, so she told me, Lesbians and Homosexuals would find it very hard to walk because they would be CLOVEN-HOOVED! Insanity is not the sole preserve of the loony left. Anyway, I'm off to Porlock, after which we have the Bishop's visitation. Au revoir!