Castle Church, Stafford

I caught the train down to Stafford in Staffordshire on Monday. It is a relatively close county town about which I have been largely ignorant. Ahead of my visit I had contacted a local vicar and fellow Lancastrian who kindly entertained me to lunch in his vicarage and gave me a tour of his peculiar church. Readers may question the word ‘church’ and wonder which meaning I had in mind. In the sense of a ‘gathering of believers’, Castle Church is peculiar because it is a growing congregation. How many Anglican churches do you know which are submitting plans for a new building, having outgrown their current one? How many Anglican congregations are there which are determined to remain faithful to scripture despite the choppy denomination tides against which they must row? Castle Church is one of them.

Their building is also peculiar. I refer not to the one as yet unbuilt, nor the parish hall in which they currently gather, but the typical-looking parish church building. Its name comes from its proximity to Stafford Castle though I am sure that I am not the first to also think of its congregation’s determination to ‘hold the fort’ during a siege. The building, like many parish churches, is a mixture of old and new. The tower, which I could not date except by the rather helpfully positioned datestone, was from 1624; Jacobean towers are not common. Within, there was a piece of Norman masonry (a grave cover, presumably) inserted into a wall, while the rest was Victoriana with a later, north aisle including Romanesque arching. Over the chancel arch, however, was a large projector screen, showing that our own century is not be omitted from the interior’s development.

In each age of the Church, there have been battles to fight, temptations to resist, cultural encroachments to withstand. Whether it be liberalism, persecution, popery, personality or communism, there is always a foe, always an ideology or an unpleasant, local circumstance through which Satan will seek to mar our witness and silence our testimony. On earth, we are the Church Militant: striving, battling, resisting. One day, we shall be the Church Triumphant, but right now, we find ourselves amidst the din of spiritual warfare. Our churches are castles, fortresses, watchtowers and citadels, even while the enemies of truth seem to be prospering, as denominations and congregations succumb and fall to their godless and Christless worldviews.

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12

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