St. Michael's Church, Rampside

St. Michael's at Rampside, Cumbria, is an otherwise unremarkable building, dating to the early years of Victoria’s reign. It stands on the site of an earlier, thirteenth-century chapel built by the monks of Furness Abbey. Its present state seems rather sad but also poignant and prophetic, as detailed on its benefice’s website:

St. Michael's church building is now closed for public worship due the structural defects…The congregation now worship in Rampside Village Hall

In terms of location and the consecration of ground, it is as though this Anglican congregation has become nonconformist, hiring secular, shared spaces. I do not know what the structural problems may be, but that word is only ever associated with those which are eye-wateringly expensive. Shifting to the village hall might not have been pleasant but it was surely the right thing to do.

Of more importance than sagging roofs, leaning walls and sinking foundations are the theological structures of our churches, for they prove more costly and dangerous when they crumble. A denomination led and governed by anything other than God’s word is sure to err. Traditions, feelings, reassessments and cultural sensitivities may each have their place, but never must they be allowed to characterise our message, qualify our hope or govern our churches. Present and past Archbishops of Canterbury have applied additional pressure onto an already weakened structure, and a good many believers in that church have seen fit to decamp to places of greater safety.

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Revelation 18:4

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