St Mary's, Stafford

St Mary’s Church in Stafford is a rather large, medieval construction. It was closed each day I called, despite its obvious sense of heritage and central location. I saw that it opened for a mid-week service but decided not to attend and gain entry seeing as it advocates heterodox views on marriage and sexual ethics. To engage in God’s worship while rejecting His word is dangerous, and not something I can condone.

Nevertheless, I was able to see from its grounds its peculiar, octagonal tower. I have visited a couple of these before, including Hornby in Lancashire and Ely Cathedral. Why the builders would go to the additional trouble, I cannot tell. Eight in scripture seems to be associated with new beginnings. The ‘eighth day’ was often a rather busy period for Old Testament saints, as well as it being the time of circumcision in Genesis 17:12:

And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

The number saved from the Great Flood, who emerged onto new ground:

...God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (1 Peter 3:20b)

The churches are decaying and closing, the land is paganising and declining, but this could still be our eighth day, when God does something new. Our nation needs hope, our churches need revival and our individual lives require fresh commiment and dedication to God's honour and glory. 

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

A  D