#Lockdown Pilgrimage - 2nd Sunday before Lent

 The Beast from the East Mk.2 was promised, so we decided to stay local and make for Coltishall's St. John's Church. It sits on a hummock of a hill above the River Bure.


Its good to join the unknown thousands who, over the ages,  made the same journey to worship the one eternal God.  The architecture of the building suggests that people have been saying their prayers on this hill for a thousand years.

The little circular windows, originally unglazed,  gave light with a minimum of draft, to the small single cell building that subsequent generations enlarged. They added glazed windows that flood the building with light. The small unglazed circular windows are typical of Saxon architecture and give us the English word "wind eyes" or "windows",  if you like!



That is another week with the church empty, the ringing chamber empty, the bells silent and the plinths on the west front still lacking images of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist.  But the churchyard is full of those who were buried in the Christian faith and hope in the resurrection of the dead. 

In the churchyard Snowdrops in the snow - "Consider the flowers," the man said. Snowdrops a.k.a. Candlemas Bells. I smile, they remind me of St. John's Gospel, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." Hope for the quick and the dead. I think of Stanley Spencer's  Resurrection in Cookham Churchyard and smile again.

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