All Saints Church, Dunsby

All Saints Church at Dunsby in south Lincolnshire was locked up when I called. It transpires that this is the case most Sundays, too, having been deemed a 'Festival Church'. This rather delightful name is actually rather sad; it means that Dunsby's church opens only thrice yearly for a Harvest Festival, Remembrance Sunday, and Carols by Candlelight. Its parish website celebrates the fact that this attracts more young families, but at three one-offs a year, and none in the spring and summer, church attendance is hardly burdensome.

All Saints and the good villagers of Dunsby are possibly being more honest than a good number of church-goers across the land. Many only attend worship ‘for Christmas and Easter’, or ‘hatches, matches and despatches’. This kind of ‘special occasion’ Christianity is briefly gratifying for those of us who put on special events, but the hope is always that these larger turnouts materialise into something rather more permanent and longer term. More special than cheesy Christmas services, sentimental harvests and melancholic acts of Remembrance, is a good, old fashioned Lord’s Day, the first day of the week. Then, the followers of Jesus Christ gather together for prayer, worship, Bible time and maybe communion; that day is more precious than red-letter days.

Curiously, what appears to be an old, medieval font lies outside the church building, filled with soil and geraniums. The church might be closed on Sundays, but Jesus Christ who was baptised out in the Jordan may still be sought, called and found outside the locked buildings which were constructed for His worship.