Taking a page from the glamping phenomenon\u2014very expensive glamour camping that in no way resembles actual real camping, most especially because of how much you pay for it\u2014camping in a church is a way to experience beautiful architecture and history first hand, beyond the desultory drive by or stroll. You pay a little bit\u2014more than you might expect, but not near so much that the experience is out of an ordinary traveler\u2019s reach\u2014and you have the whole place to yourself for the night. The churches are not deconsecrated, some of them still have services occasionally, so of course it is important to be respectful when you\u2019re there, cuddled up in your sleeping bag. The money you pay goes towards general upkeep. In this way, everyone wins.<\/p>\n
The article itself is a telling relic for anyone documenting our new post-Christian anthropology.<\/p>\n
I lie on my camp bed, gaze at the vaulted ceiling and marvel at the intricacy of its wooden seraphim. I\u2019ve never slept in such a large space before. The ornate carvings and the spectacular stained-glass windows were probably quite \u2018bling\u2019 in their day but this is a truly inspiring space. I\u2019m not a religious person but before I fall asleep I ponder the faith that drove Whitwell Elwin to build such an incredible building. His commitment and slightly mad ambition is a source of wonder. Late at night, this deeply restful place feels like one man\u2019s vision of heaven, or at least a house of profound peace that is on its way there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It\u2019s what we do now. We search out \u2018inspiration.\u2019 We \u2018ponder the faith\u2019 of other people who enacted it, who lived it out in stone and marble, who themselves traveled far and wide to spread and propagate it. But that\u2019s as far as it can go, because in the morning there is the bustle of rolling up the sleeping bag, folding up the cot, packing up the car, and assessing the town which has a \u2018boutique hotel\u2019 and a really good breakfast.<\/p>\n
Blow the dust off a prayer book, enjoy a glass of wine which \u201chas always been part of the ritual of church services,\u201d lie back in your cot and stare at the gorgeous ceiling, and then pass on to your regular well-appointed life in which you remain the center, the measure, the truth.<\/p>\n
I am often sad walking through our cinderblock parish hall pondering to myself\u2014which is a very Christian thing to do, by the way, along with the glass of wine, it goes all the way back to our \u2018founding\u2019\u2014that curious question of ecclesiastical taste, and church budgets. Whoever designed our hall either didn\u2019t think, or didn\u2019t know to make it prettier and better. The whole building seems hastily built, and then hastily remodeled. The cavernous, unprepossessing hall was constructed with an eye toward church dinners and bingo. The nave itself is open and light, but not in the least architecturally arresting. Matt likes to call it the Brady Bunch church because\u2014well, that\u2019s what it looks like. It\u2019s not the kind of place for which you would pay money to spend the night.<\/p>\n
Not that you couldn\u2019t stay there, in a pinch. When a portion of our town flooded we opened up the parish hall for people who had bleakly watched the water come all the way up into their living rooms. We blew up air-mattresses, put out a call for extra blankets, and tried to make a screen out of some gray office cubicle dividers. But it was awkward, uncomfortable for them, and embarrassing for all the people wandering through. Nearly every day there is something going on in that room\u2014bible studies, classes, soup kitchen cooks popping by to see if there\u2019s anything edible in the fridge. When we invited the flooded to come up for building\u2019s purpose, worshiping a transcendent and holy God who took on human flesh so that we could be rescued out of the power of sin and the darkness of hell, they shuddered and quickened the search for new lodgings.<\/p>\n
No one would ever lie back and \u2018ponder the faith\u2019 of the person who built it, nor any of us who inhabit it now. You would not be in awe. You would not think of heaven.<\/p>\n
And yet, you wouldn\u2019t, probably, if you stayed for an actual service, quietly go back to your well arranged life without having some kind of reaction, even if it was only to huff and be annoyed.<\/p>\n
Anyway, isn\u2019t there something in the Bible about camping? Or some sort of house? How strange that old church buildings themselves would be inhabited by wanderers, people going from one place to another, not staying long. That\u2019s what the human experience is supposed to be. Not too comfortable, too attached, but always keeping an eye on that looming reality of the life to come. If an empty church isn\u2019t the place to proclaim the One who came to drag us up out of the mire into his own place, perhaps it is better to pass on and find some more plain, less inspiring place to while away the time.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is interesting, if vaguely depressing. For the world wanderer, collecting interesting places to stay, various churches in England and Scotland are available for what they\u2019re calling \u2018champing,\u2019 that is, camping in a church. Taking a page from the glamping phenomenon\u2014very expensive glamour camping that in no way resembles actual real camping, most especially because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2373,"featured_media":5669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[23,34],"class_list":["post-9463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-signs-of-the-apocalypse","tag-anglicanism","tag-culture-watch"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n