I HAVE a confession to make: while not being a Catholic — or even a practicing Anglican — I’m a regular attendee at evensong church services. In this, I’m my late mother’s son: she was an agnostic like me, but always used to say she found great solace and aesthetic pleasure in attending church. For years — decades, even — I found this a pretty absurd notion. Sure, some churches may have lovely interiors, but the fact remains that the non-believer is hardly getting out of the experience what the believer is.
For the latter, evensong is a carefully structured ceremonial designed to place them in a devotional relationship with their God. It felt to me as if participating in this under false pretences was not only insulting to believers, it also compromised me. I felt a queasy sort of cosmic embarrassment, as they offered up their hosannas — and I hung my head. As for kneeling on a hassock… puh-lease!
This story is from the December 07, 2022 edition of Evening Standard.
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This story is from the December 07, 2022 edition of Evening Standard.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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