Part 11: Penelope goes to church…

Penelope goes to church. The village centre clustered around a large green, formed in the shape of a triangle. In the centre mushroomed a large oak tree, its canopy almost as broad as the green. A stone-built church, the vicarage, and its graveyard dominated one side of the green. A Smithy, a convenience store, and Ye Olde inn with its stables ranged along a second side of the triangle. Mr Styles, the owner of The Stables, lived in a stately town house that shared the third length with administration buildings.

Penelope passed Ye Olde Inn. She advanced slowly; her features smooth and expressionless, headed for the church.

The church was small and practical. Above the entrance porch, painted in large flowery text, was the church’s name: All Saints. It contained a railed off sanctuary at the head with stained-glass windows. Within was the altar, tabernacle, raised pulpit, and a chair for the vicar. Maggot-eaten oak pews filled the church’s body with room for three hundred people. Organ and choir occupied a small loft at the back. The church smelled of candle wax and incense.

A group of devout members gathered for the evening service, and when the steeple clock chimed eight, the meeting began. Theirs was a tiny, tight-minded group. They asserted they alone obeyed the scriptural doctrines full out. On the day of judgement, God would save them alone. All other denominations, part-time worshippers, unbelievers, and those who practised homosexual behaviour or sex out of marriage would rot in hell.

Vicar Bitter conducted the service, a bulbous man who loved to preach doom and gloom. He was a tall, heavy-boned man, with a vacant look on his leathery face.
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One after another, the members rose to receive the body and blood of Jesus at the Holy Communion. They were a gaunt and plainly dressed lot, rather elderly and complacent. The most honoured among them was Penelope.
 
 To be continued…
 
The real world:
 
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Like to know more about Alf, Bert and the rest of the gang? You can read their chaotic history in What on Earth .
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