Cononley Church

Cononley Church in North Yorkshire is not terribly remarkable. Although I have not managed to gain entry, its externals are typically mid-nineteenth-century and surrounded by an ample supply of gravestones. What is faintly unusual is its location on a hillside just without the village. It must have been the best (or only) available location, but one requires a certain level of fitness and mobility to approach this place of worship. Even to get to the first steps one must ascend a gradient from the village, and then one must climb some more. Ironically, the majority of people who attend churches in this land, especially rural ones, tend to be past their youth and well into the days of creaking limbs and dragging feet.

Perhaps there are some who would come and attend Christian worship but cannot get there. There are certainly many others who can, but won’t. While being the first to acknowledge that church attendance is not the same as having a right relationship with God and knowing one’s sins are forgiven, there will be many on that Great Day who might have come to Him as a Saviour, but didn't. There will be those who left it too late and for whom the pains of life gave them too great a distraction. Some climbs are worth the trouble.

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Isaiah 55:6