Barnwood

A car-less friend needed a chauffeur this morning, to take him to give a talk at Barnwood. I had been booked for this weeks ago, and in turn booked - as I thought it - the car. But just as I was ready to set off, I saw it disappearing out of the drive. So, for the rest of the time till lunch I was rather ill-temperedly playing catch-up.

The hiatus did enable me take a look at the church in Barnwood, much Victorianised, but quite handsomely set in an enormous churchyard, with some fine trees. Pope Francis has just put out his first big document, Evangelii Gaudium: "The Church," he says in it, "is called to be the house of the Father, with doors always wide open. One concrete sign of such openness is that our church doors should always be open, so that if someone, moved by the Spirit, comes there looking for God, he or she will not find a closed door."

St Lawrence's was firmly locked.