St Bride’s Church, Kirkbride

St Bride’s Church at Kirkbride, Cumberland, is one of those tiny little churches one finds in remote villages and hamlets. Curiously, St Bride’s sits in the south east quadrant of a Roman fort. Little remains of the fortifications save a few earthworks and bits of masonry. But once upon a time, the god Mars was here held in high esteem, and received offerings and prayers from this very spot. Now his adherents are gone; although we are only a little less war-like, devotion to the old gods stopped 1500 years ago. For a millenium, worship has been offered here to Jesus Christ, once deemed to be an enemy of Rome and sentenced to crucifixion by one of its functionaries. Though the nation is re-paganising, the old gods are not coming back. Yet still a faithful few gather to worship the true God of heaven, who came to earth incarnated at the appointed time, that through His death and resurrection, we might ascend to His heaven.