Of such is the Kingdom...

I visited St Mary's, Stockport today. No service information was available on their website so took a flyer and arrived on time at 10.30.

St Mary's is a huge cathedral like building situated next to the marketplace in the centre of Stockport. It joins several other historic churches in vying for what must be a pretty small slice of population given that people have generally moved out of the town centre.

The congregation was, shall we say, modest and, in the main, of riper years. Likewise the interior was, similarly, showing its age though, to be fair, some ongoing work was evident on the ceiling following the external refurbishment of the tower recently completed.

What the congregation lacked in numbers, however, it made up for in variety and resolve. Surely a group like this should be putting themselves first? Wrong, right at the start of the service they spent a good ten minutes thinking about the work of the Leprosy Mission and later took an extra collection - give 10p or £10 simply what you can.

Surely a group like this would not have the energy to think about mission? Wrong, mission formed the centre piece of both the sermon and the prayers, the latter including the following by John Henry Newman:

Lord, help me to spread thy fragrance everywhere I go.
Let me preach thee without preaching,
not by my words, but by my example,
by the catching force,
the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love
my heart bears to thee. Amen.

The singing was hearty and the fellowship after the service was good. All this in spite of the absence of the Rector, Roger Scoones, who was off skiing (what is it about clergy and skiing?!)

As I stated in the title, of such is the Kingdom of God