Light at St Mary's, East Walton

One of the joys of a road trip is that one can detour or stop off whenever a brown sign or interesting feature appears on the horizon. As I lazily made my way to Norwich from King’s Lynn last month, I found a turn off called Church Lane, and went down it, to see what I would find. I found St Mary’s Church, East Walton. There was a chap outside mowing the grass, and I asked him about the place. His thick Norfolk accent rendered his speech a little less than clear, and I fear my Lancastrian twang made me equally incomprehensible. Still, I was delighted to find it unlocked. Now when one thinks of a medieval church up north, they’re often dark and gloomy. Huberholme in the Yorkshire Dales is the best example. Fairly low ceilings and windows full of dull Victorian stained glass create a murky interior. Not so at East Walton. A high ceiling with windows to match admit so much light it’s nearly as bright within as without. This allows light to bounce off the whitewashed walls, unhindered by junk and clutter. And it’s a good job, too, for they have around the nave oil lamps, electric lighting not having been installed. The glass is plain, probably installed by puritans to replace the older, gaudy panes which, though pretty, reduced illumination and may have led to idolatrous tom-foolery.

In the Bible, light is both a symbol of Christ and of truth. As Christ both spoke truth and claimed to be truth in John 14:6, there is little wonder He also identified as the light of the world. Sadly, many churches have too little spiritual light; Christ is not the focus nor is His revealed word their rule in all matters. Distracted by showmanship or social concern, the absence of Christ only makes such assemblies benighted and shadowy. We at Salem are no perfect gathering by any means, but so long as we keep Christ the centre of all we do and His word the Bible our final arbiter and guide, there’ll be enough light within and without. The world in which we live grows gloomier by the hour; in such conditions, even modest candle-shine offers a ray of hope.