St James's Church, Accrington

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Wed, 18/06/2025 - 00:00

I had not been able to gain admission to St James’s Church at Accrington before. A Georgian building with the inevitable Victorian 'improvements', it is the main place of worship for one of our county's prominent mill towns. The other week, I saw an open door and asked to look inside. The local foodbank administrators were bustling within, shifting boxes and bags into position, so the recipients of this generosity might be the more efficiently served. Indeed, they had begun to queue up at the door, and several assumed that I was one of them, wanting first pick.

I was conscious of not getting in anyone’s way, so I took my pictures hurriedly and apologetically. Although I was pleased to have gained entry at last, it was the piles of tinned food and boxes of imperishables which most drew my eye. The parish church had become a giant stockroom of physical food, resembling a warehouse.

A time is coming when all who come to this food bank, and most of those who do not need to, will rue the day that copies of the Bible remained, undisturbed, in empty churches. They will lament that such a diet of spiritual food was freely offered, but refused or neglected. The gospel’s message is ignored and sidelined today, a divine feast for which there is little apparent hunger. On the great and coming Day of Wrath, the gospel’s message will be heard too late. Go to the food bank and get hold of some grub if you need to, but better to seek every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. That which He gives will outlive the stomach; those who come to Him shall outlive the grave itself.

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me.
Hear, and your soul shall live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—
The sure mercies of David."