St Peter's Church, Shaftesbury

St Peter’s Church in Shaftesbury sits atop Gold Hill, below, that most photogenic cobbled street made famous by the Hovis bread advert from 1973, directed by Ridley Scott. Pilgrims presumably climbed that great hill on their way to Shaftesbury Abbey and stopped off at St Peter’s to give thanks for either keeping them safe thus far, or for just giving them the strength to get to the top without their hearts stopping.

Inside, it is a mixture of ancient and modern, and not displeasing to the eye. To the northeast is a collection of alcoves and niches which would once have held medieval statuary of saints and angels, but would have been cleared out at the time of Reformation and the Commonwealth. Those charged with the building’s present administration are pleased to fill them up again with statues and trinkets, as though they would return to the popery and ritualism from which the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries delivered us.

Although the current crop of statues might be deemed harmless foci of devotion or mere historical curios, we should always be wary of idols’ skill at returning to the places from which they were dislodged. I speak not of silly images of St Francis and St Theresa, grinning at us from their ancient shelving units, but our desires for money, or sex, or fame, or power. Such things are addictive, and once we escort them out of the front door, they would walk around and sneak in through the back. The Church of England has failed to remain truly Protestant these five centuries, and the Christian struggles daily to prevent distraction and ambition from smothering his piety.

The dearest idol I have known,
whate'er that idol be,
help me to tear it from Thy throne
and worship only Thee.

-Wm Cowper