Christ Church!

It was rainy and I was at the shops. Unfortunately they were closed. So I went to church. In the middle of town, right next to the shops is ChristChurch. Whether this is an expletive, a blasphemy or a rather pedantic nod at Jesus, I don’t know. But it was dry inside and there were seats to sit on, so I was pleased.

At the beginning, presumably for the enjoyment of the kids before they were sent off to do macaroni pictures or whatever it is they do in the back of the Church, they had a lovely puppet show with music and children dancing wildly in front of them. Then we had a nice couple in front of us telling us of China. Apparently churches are illegal there, so they have to hide in each other’s houses, twitching the curtains and keeping their voices low and the lights off. These are called ‘House Churches.’ They need a new visa to return (in order to build superconductors or small LHC’s as the need takes them) so possibly the government has realised they were Christians and flaunting the law.

After a few hymns, some of which had some strange psychedelic, Pink Floyd-esque backing tunes to them, a bishop stood up telling us how and why he became a Christian. It was all very convincing but I can’t remember much of it. There was one argument he mentioned that you cannot prove that god exists, but likewise you cannot prove that he doesn’t. I haven’t been swayed one way or the other, unlike the bishop, or Bertrand Russell (who was a very clever man and also an atheist.) There was also a rather lovely analogy that the earth is like a woman in labour: suffering but hopeful.

Altogether however, a nice place to wait until the shops opened.