Quiet Mosser, Holy Dove

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Mon, 01/11/2021 - 00:00

St Michael’s in Mosser, Allerdale, is one of the hardest churches to locate, the most difficult to see and the most awkward to visit. Hidden on a hill among the trees, it is 150 yards from the nearest road, which is single track and offers no parking. Having driven past it twice, we stopped the car on the road, hoping no passing tractor would be obstructed. Into the field we climbed, up the hill and through the gate to the church.

This is a 'fell chapel', Mosser coming from the Norse mosi ‘peat bog’, suggesting it had never been an easy place to travel. Once there, the views were grand, and the chapel, though simple, was pretty. It had a few special features, including an eighteenth-century date stone, a Norman font and a 1920s stained glass window depicting the Holy Spirit as a dove. I’m not the kind of visitor who senses ‘atmospheres’ in old buildings, much less the Holy Spirit, who does not dwell in temples made by hand. Yet the window did remind me that the Spirit’s work is often done in secret, among, as it were, the trees and lonely fells, past which careless folk drive by.

I used to think the Holy Spirit was only found in the clamour of loud singing and booms of the band. He was only heard among the spluttering syllables and quivering prophets. He was only seen in the fascinating ministries of the famous televangelists and big hitters. I once wished I belonged to a large urban church, because that’s where the Spirit was always found. Instead, I took the Lord’s own advice:

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray…” (Matt. 6:6).

When one seeks Christ, one seeks His Spirit. Look for Him not in the huge congregations with their commotion and noise, but among the quiet places, for:

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul.

A stained-glass window is not the Holy Spirit, yet in that silent chapel among the brooding fells is the Spirit's depiction found. Common pigeons throng the crowded streets to feed on the rubbish and detritus, but the Dove is found among the hushed and silent trees.