All Saints' Tower, Pavement, York

I have gone round so many churches now that I sometimes end up writing about one a second time without realising it. The example here is All Saints', Pavement, in the great City of York. I cannot remember going previously but I wrote about it back in 2016 offering some poor quality photographs. I will say little more about its interior, therefore, but I shall speak about its peculiar tower, which Simon Jenkins describes as ‘the best tower in York’ in his seminal England’s Thousand Best Churches.

It is an ordinary-looking tower but for its delicate and finely carved octagonal ‘lantern’, which once housed a light, which would have guided travellers into the city. Yet one might have expected this function to be committed to the great Minster not very far away, the towers of which are more numerous, and considerably taller. Would not a light from those giant pylons have lent greater illumination to the weary walkers of the dusk? Perhaps they were too tall and lofty; a smaller light, closer to the road, might have given greater cheer and utility than some distant lamp high in the sky.

Do not marvel that the greatest gospel light in modern Britain comes from the smallest, drabbest churches. The great cathedrals might be more interested in choral harmonies and the existential threat of climate change, but there are still tin-tabs, country chapels, house churches and gospel halls which preach the good news of sin’s forgiveness. God used an ass to speak to Balaam, a slavegirl to address Naaman and a woman of questionable morals to proclaim Jesus in Sychar. Do not be surprised, therefore, if the brightest gospel light shines forth from the smaller, poorer churches while their taller, larger neighbours are shrouded in gloom.