St. Leonard’s, Watlington

Watlington is a small town at the base of the Chiltern escarpment. St. Leonard’s Church is rather hidden but worth seeking out. The church website can be seen at http://www.stleonardswatlington.co.uk but this has no visitor information on it. The church appears to be open every day and there is a sign put out under the shelter of the lych gate.

I visited on a dull day and when I opened the door into the church I found the interior rather dark. However, walk a couple of steps and some lights come on automatically. They could do with staying on a bit longer but are certainly needed here.

On the table near the door is a lovely welcome notice, ‘whatever your reason you are very welcome’ – very good. There is a selection of the good Oxford Diocesan leaflets available but no church guide, which is a pity as this is an interesting church. There is a laminated guide hung on the wall to borrow as the visitor walks around but the lack of a guide is an omission here. There are mugs, shopping bags (these seem to be popular in many churches) for sale. Also a very good churchyard record with a lot of detail in it. Very welcome for those researching family history. This must have been a real labour of love.

Evidence of an active children’s work can be seen by the provision of a children’s corner. There is also a very good Easter Garden here – one of the nicest I have seen.

Easter Garden at Watlington

In the south chapel (Lady Chapel?) there is a prayer board for visitors to use but it is not very obvious and could do with some explanation on it.

There is a modern statue of St. Leonard in the south aisle but it is not easy to see against the dark stone of the building, which is a great pity as it is very good. It would also be good to see some biographical details of the saint as, although he is a relatively common patron, he is not at all well known. Exciting Holiness has this to say about him;

‘Leonard the Hermit

6 November

According to an eleventh-century Life, Leonard was a sixth- century Frankish nobleman who refused a bishopric to become first a monk, then a hermit, at Noblac (now Saint-Léonard) near Limoges. The miracles attributed to him, both during his lifetime and after his death, caused a widespread cultus throughout Europe and, in England alone, over a hundred and seventy churches are dedicated to him.’

St. Leonard statue

I therefore rate St. Leonard’s church as good for the purpose of this study. It wouldn’t take much to make this very good. Certainly worth a visit.

St. George’s, Deal

This church was built in 1715 in the classical style. Nelson worshipped here at one time. This is another church on a busy High Street that is locked. There is a sign on the entrance (which is tucked away down the side of the building) which does say that visitors can ring for attention. There was no one there when I visited.

Website on http://www.stgeorgesdeal.org.uk reveals a lively church with a lot going on. Their priorities do not lie with the visitor which is a shame as this is worth seeing from pictures I have looked at.

I rate it is very poor.

St. Peter’s , Canterbury

Canterbury was filled with visitors on the day I visited, as it seems to be most of the time. Many of them walked straight past the entrance to St. Peter’s. Here is a church which could have a real role to play in the visitor economy of the city. It could provide a haven of peace and an opportunity for prayer, reflection and hospitality. However, it is locked up and only seems to be open for services. There is a website stpeters-stmildreds.org.uk and the pictures on this show an interesting little church.

This really is a wasted opportunity as so much could be done here. I have to rate it as very poor.

St. Dunstan’s, Canterbury

There is more to Canterbury than the Cathedral. There are some interesting churches here too. St. Dunstan’s is one of them. It is up the road from Canterbury West Station (itself worth a look at). It is open every day with a good welcoming notices, both outside and in the porch.

A light comes on when someone walks inside. There were 17 visitors in the visitors book for March. Postcards are for sale as well as a brief guide at 20p and a very extensive one at £5 – this can be downloaded from the Kindle Store for £3.07. This is the first time I have seen this done. There is no church website as such but quite a lot on achurchnearyou. No visitor info as such though.

There is a prayer board to use and the Diocesan calendar of intercessions was available as well as a Christian Aid Lent leaflet for Children. This church is noted for having Thomas More’s memorial as well as his head (!). Quite a bit is made of this and why not. There is a Fellowship of St. Thomas More as well.

I rate St. Dunstan’s as good.

Christchurch, Vale Square, Ramsgate

A large church above the Harbour. There is a sign outside but it only mentions the Sunday services here. The church is surrounded by a neat and tidy churchyard which is well kept as a garden but every gate into it is firmly padlocked! This may be for good reasons but it does give a poor impression, especially as the church is locked. It is overlooked on 3 sides by houses so I would have thought that there would be little problem in keeping this church open. Website at http://www.christchurchramsgate.co.uk which gives lots of information about this lively church but leaves the visitor none the wiser. I rate it as very poor.

Sailor’s Church, Ramsgate

Down by the harbour there is a very unusual little church. It was built as both a Church and as the Sailor’s Home and Harbour Mission, being opened on 8th July 1878. Part of the building was used as a hostel for ‘Smack Boys’ who were employed in the fishing fleet. It also took in the survivors of shipwrecks. The guide book tells some of these stories and some 3,300 ship wrecked mariners were cared for at no charge. Evening services are held here during the summer months.

The church is open every day and is beautifully cared for and is open every day with a good welcome sign outside and inside. There is a ‘Brown sign’ pointing to the church from the road.

Inside, there is no visitors book but there is a good guide book, ‘The Jesus Book – extracts from ‘Our Daily Bread’ and some welcome leaflets in English, Dutch, French and German. A Bible is left open which is always good to see. It shows a living church that is being used for what it was built for. We can  be too tidy!

Also, there is a small museum of model ships and historical information. It is well done. Somewhere to leave some prayers would be good but I do rate this little church as good for this study. It comes under Christchurch, Ramsgate and the website is at http://www.christchurchramsgate.co.uk There is a bit of information about the Sailor’s Church but no visitors information as such.

Note the Port and Starboard lights !

St. George the Martyr Ramsgate

I had been looking forward to visiting this striking church, built by H T Kendall from designs by H Helmsley in 1825-7. It occupies a dominant position above the town.

Outside, there is a basic sign with services and contact details for the Vicar. The church website is at http://www.stgeorgeschurchramsgate.org and it does have a link to a BBC page with an interior tour. This does highlight what the visitor is missing! There is no other visit information on the site.

Another wasted opportunity to communicate the Christian faith with those around and I have to rate it as very poor.

St Peter’s in Thanet

A large church on the outskirts of Broadstairs. There are some considerable problems with the tower and the base of it is cordoned off as bits are falling off. Outside is a ‘thermometer’ to indicate the level of fund raising towards essential repairs. It is a long time since I have seen one of these outside a church.

The external notice board says, ‘Welcome to this historic Village Church’, however there is not much of a welcome as it is firmly locked! This is quite common in Thanet for some reason. I can’t imagine that this part of Kent is a hot bed of Church crime. There are some observations to make here. Firstly, here is a church which wishes to raise money for repairs. I would have thought that opening up to visitors might help in this as well as enabling the local community to ‘own’ the church more. St. Peter’s is the centre of the village. Also, there is a town trail laid out around St. Peter’s in Thanet with a board right outside  the church. Very much a wasted opportunity and I have to rate it as very poor. The church website can be found at http://www.stpeterinthanet.org.uk but it has no visitor information.

St. Andrew Holborn

St. Andrew’s is a guild church ie it has no parish as such but serves the business district around it – more of that in a moment.

Firstly, the church is open each day and this is well signposted. There is building work going on around the church at the moment but the signs account for that. At the door there are welcome signs as well. There is much of interest in this beautiful and very well cared for church.

Inside, there are gifts and cards etc. to buy – a pretty good selection of items and these are well displayed. There is a free colour guide which gives good information about the church and it’s activities. Also a Lent Book – ‘This is the Word’ for which a donation of £1 is requested. This is very good indeed and also worth pondering over. This all points to a church which takes it’s visitors very seriously. This is one of several things that set this church apart from many others. There are some stunning icons here which were written for the church by the Monastic Community in Vallechiara. They are well worth spending time with. A leaflet outlines their meaning. There are also leaflets on ‘Places to pray’ within the church and another which points towards ‘Three Points of Prayer’. These are an icon – ‘Our Lady of Inexhaustible Grace’, The Tabernacle in which the blessed sacrament is kept (this was created for Stewart Headlam) and ‘The Statue of our Lady’.  A a votive stand sits in  front of a statue of this. You might gather that this is not the most Evangelical of churches…

Along with some prayer guides. There is also a prayer board nearby to add intercession requests to. But I have saved the best till last. Here at St. Andrew’s they have provided a ‘Listening Service for anyone who needs to talk.’ This is provided by trained and experienced listeners. As the person sat there had no customers I went and talked to him. This has been running for some time in response to the recession of the last few years and the strain this has put on the business people who work around the church. He told me that it was quite well used but had been less used in the last few months as the economy had picked up. This is a very good response indeed to a real need in the locality

Statue of St. Andrew with a ‘prayer net’

I am very impressed with St. Andrew’s and rate it as excellent. Well worth a look.

St. Sepulchre, Holborn Viaduct

An interesting Church in a busy part of the City. It is actually the largest parish church in London and has a long history. It is known as ‘The Musicians Church’ and, appropriately enough, at the time of my lunch time visit had a concert organised by The Anglo – Japanese Society of Wessex. It was given by a trio called Trio SOL who were playing a selection of modern chamber pieces. Very good they were too and there was quite an audience for this free concert.

Outside a simple A frame welcomed any who would come in. The church is normally open each day but I did find it closed for some rehearsals the last time I visited. If you want to look inside then it is probably best to check the website – http://www.st-sepulchre.org.uk/

There is also some building work going on so part of the nave is not in use. Inside, I found some post cards for sale but there seemed to be no guide book but there is a toilet to use. It was hard to wander around but this is an interesting church to visit. The concert, as many other London churches have, was a real bonus. I rate this church as good and, if you can catch a concert, that is an added attraction.