Little Things Please

A small group of elderly ladies make their way from a midweek service at a not-very-remarkable Surrey church. They are all very happy, and not only because they have just met their Lord and Saviour in the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The thing that has made them happy is that for the first time in about three weeks they have been able to go in and out of the church's main door. 

While I was on holiday, a pane of glass in the inner porch door was broken. Marion the curate took the photograph left, and thinks it wasn't smashed by a direct impact but by the door swinging to in a gust of wind (it was very windy indeed that day). The investigation revealed that the glass was ordinary plate glass rather than safety glass. 'I can't understand why it was done like that even if it was twenty-odd years ago', said the glazier. I can: it will have been a case of a PCC being told by someone, 'Oh, I know someone who'll do it cheaper than that'. Anyway, it's now all been replaced, and normal service is resumed.

Really, the ladies attending the midweek service shouldn't have been all that pleased about the restoration of Order. Going via the main door requires negotiating two steps rather than the gentle slope up from the hall door, which is the alternative access route, and that's a challenge to some of them. Years ago after a visit to a Sunday service, my friend Professor Abacus advised that we should switch permanently to using the hall door for just such reasons. But the mere restitution of how things should be is clearly enough to trump such minor concerns as convenience.