4 June

Dear Friends,

THE TINY WHITE CHURCHES OF GREECE

If you ever visit Greece, you can’t help wondering why they have so many churches. There are big churches in the towns and villages. But out in the country and even in remote places the hillsides are dotted with little white churches. If you ever go to visit one of them, you will find it is very small indeed. Some of them are what you might call ‘two-seater- churches, but they have candles that you can light and the holy icons which are an aid to prayer in the Greek Orthodox Church. And they always smell of incense - another aid to prayer.

Bishop John Zizioulas loves to be asked why people build little churches in remote places. ‘Have you seen the hillsides around some of our villages?’ he asks. ‘They are rocky and barren and even the goats can’t find anything to eat up there.’ He explains that people build little churches up there so that they will be reminded that God is present even among the thorns and thistles. The one who once wore thorns as a crown is present for his dear ones even in the most inhospitable places.

Denis Campbell

(Locum minister)