The Lambfold Benefice contains five ancient parish churches. Indeed St Mary’s Blakesley, ‘youngest’
church building, dates back to the late 13th Century!
To enter any of them is to enter into English History itself. From the stance of national heritage one can stand in the
footsteps of the Normans, of medieval Yeoman farmers or even a notorious 17th Pirate! Within them the very history of our
land can be grasped and touched, whether its the image of the ‘the Bearer of the Bow' to King Henry IV; or the beheaded
‘idolatrous statuary' left behind by the reformation's zealots or indeed the very private grief made public, of a wealthy
family quite literally annihilated by the effects of the First World War.
Yet these building are more than mere centres of focus for England's heritage. They are treasure houses of Christian
prayer and mission. To enter them is to enter a place made sacred by almost 1000 years of prayer. Where generations of births,
deaths and marriages have been celebrated and marked. Where for half the Christian epoch men and woman, have sung praises
to their creating redeeming and sustaining God. To enter them is to join in this unbreakable chain of prayer.
In the name of Jesus Christ, whose house you enter, you are, most welcome!
