Church or Open Gardens?

Arrived at church for the service yesterday morning only to see a large sigh outside the lych-gate, pointing towards the West door (the main entrance to the church).

‘Open Gardens tickets here’ it proclaimed, in large letters. And sure enough, there was a table ensconced in the church porch, complete with tickets and programmes for the church/village Open Gardens and manned by one of the church warden. The other church warden was nowhere in evidence, his being one of the gardens which was open.

“When does it start?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s already started, an hour ago!”

“Why are we having a service then? Half the congregation will be opening their gardens. And there’ll be people coming for tickets – one of you will have to be out in the porch sorting them out. And what about this display of photos all about the second world war and those who swerved in it? There’ll be people coming in and out to view it, won’t there? We should have cancelled for today, surely?”

But they just smiled and shrugged, so the service went ahead.

To my surprise, there were almost as many in church (for the service) as usual. Since it was hotter than a tropical rain forest we kept the door open, and there was plenty of noise from the porch which was a bit off-putting to start with. But I soon got used to it and ignored it.

In the end I felt it was a great witness – the church being right in the midst of people and events and showing how gentle and supportive worship can be, even if only heard from the margins of the porch.

So I hope they’ve done well with their open gardens (I think there were about a dozen gardens throughout the village to visit, all serving refreshments and some selling plants).They had brilliant weather for it.

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