All Saints’ Church, Royal Leamington Spa

All Saints’ Church in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, is one of those rather oversized parish churches which have the airs and graces of a cathedral. Replacing the humbler, medieval structure, the Victorians spared no expense to give their fashionable, royal spa town a church worthy of its dignity. The height is fantastic and the space within seems cavernous but for the gigantic windows which flood the interior with light. I arrived on a particularly good day, for the stained-glass in the chancel was bathing the opposing masonry in reds, blues and greens.

I espied a little table by one of the pillars which half resembled a side altar, draped in a Pride cloth and the usual mantras about everyone being welcome. It made me wonder if I myself was welcome, seeing as I hold to the old heresies of believing marriage is between a man and a woman, and that only males and females exist.

I contemplated that between 1843 and 1869 the church was rising again in its fashionable, gothic-revival architecture, very much reflecting the tastes and mores of mid-Victoriana. Today, this fashionable church espouses the latest cultural preoccupations, too. Doubtless, it will also reflect the next ones; in thirty years’ time, fresh tables with new cloths and banners and slogans will have been installed -if it remains open long enough.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2

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