St Helen’s Church, Stickford

I called at St Helen’s Church at Stickford, Lincolnshire on one of those bright and warm autumnal days. The tall, stately tower stood out wonderfully well against a bright, azure sky. Within, all was as I might have expected; medievalism everywhere: pews, font, carvings. A few vinyl banners in the chancel gave a little hint of it being a museum, but it otherwise felt ‘lived in’, a place where the community gathered and believers came to worship.

The feature that most struck me was the pulpit. It does not seem to be mentioned in any of the official listings, yet its construction in plain stone renders it rather unusual. It may not have stood out to most visitors and lacked some of the embellishment and carved details enjoyed by some of its brother pulpits, but I was drawn to it. Its pale hue and relatively unadorned exterior seemed to be an apt model for any preacher and preacher’s sermon. Spared excessive rhetorical flourish and verbal artifice, a good sermon directs the hearers to God’s plain truth. Furthermore, it is clean, unadorned and simple, like the hoped-for lifestyle of the one delivering it. There is many a parish church with a gaudy altar and domineering organ, but let the pulpit offer the untainted truth of God’s pure gospel.

And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly. Deuteronomy 27:8