Moulton Church: Saints Removed

All Saints, Moulton, is one of those classic Lincolnshire churches in a picture-box setting. Close by is the Swan pub, the village green and the windmill, which is the tallest in England. Its spire soars into the sky and there are many curiosities within, such as a font supported by a carved Adam and Eve and a grave slab belonging to Prudence Corby, who died July 36^th, 1793.

In the pillars of the nave are found shelves and niches, now empty, but once hosting statues of saints. At the reformation they were removed, although more generic carvings were retained (see below). So a worshipper in the church’s medieval heyday would have any number of statues to gaze upon in addition to the priest’s activities. The statues of saints could well have depicted worthy people- apostles, prophets, local hermits of pious bent. Yet these were surely a distraction from Christ.

Too many times we look at each other and not above. We base our faith on our fellow believers rather than God’s word and God’s Son. It was always appointed that God’s people should not live as lone rangers, singletons, solitary hermits, churchless recluses. We are members of communities, be that the clans of Israel or the church gatherings after Pentecost. We naturally learn to depend on each other, and there is something wholesome and godly about that. But when we look at each other instead of Christ, we’d be better off decluttering. The Corinthian believers sank into an unhealthy sectarianism, each considering himself belonging to a particular apostle or Bible teacher’s special following. Even those who claimed to follow just Christ are included in the apostle Paul’s censure, as though their declarations were less than honest.

'Look unto Jesus'.