Church buildings and grounds are now used for so many agreeable activities that it seems the word ‘churchgoing’ needs redefining: does it have to involve Sunday?

To put it to the test I gathered some treasured memories from the past.

These included a welcome and unexpected coffee-break at Penkridge in the middle of a long journey; a diamond wedding celebration of two special friends at Levens; a Christmas Fair - with lots of home-made cake - coinciding with the Farmers’ Market at Orton; and the splendid annual art exhibition at Milnthorpe just before the volunteers dismantled it ready for the next day.

There was also a postage-stamp talk and photographic competition at Staveley; a coffee morning based on Fairtrade at Dunnington; a cream tea on a bank holiday at Loweswater; the Devil’s Porridge Museum near Gretna; Moulin Heritage Centre near Pitlochry; a men’s coffee morning in Kelso; Adrian Plass and his wife inspiring us in Penrith; and a banana on a memorial bench on the way down from High Rigg at St. John’s in the Vale.

Altogether a dozen treasured memories with various things in common – all on church premises, never on a Sunday and all involving refreshment: all within reach of Kendal.

So, does this qualify me as a ‘churchgoer’? Well, I am ever grateful to all those good folk who made such encounters so rewarding – and what better way of giving thanks for these delights and other blessings than by ‘going’ on Sunday too?

Gillian Cochrane

Kendal United Reformed Church