As in all time journeys we should begin in the present. If you've passed South Anston you can't have missed the stone church with the spire, standing on the hill. On Most Sunday mornings a group of children between the ages of seven and eleven, (Trailblazers) climb the stone steps of the fifteenth century tower to the bellringers' room for special time with their friends and leaders, while the adults and older children, (Pathfinders) take part in the service in church below. The three to seven year olds, (Climbers) hear stories, sing songs and play with their leaders in the new Meeting Room. Apart from the Meeting Room, kitchen and modern entrance porch, most of the church is hundreds of years old.

You are now standing in what was once a place where only the priest was allowed to stand during the twelfth century - the Sanctuary, or holy place.

We travelled much too quickly and missed all the excitement of change. Let's travel a little more slowly this time. How about a year a minute? Let's see - eight hundred years that's eight hundred minutes - By my calculation that's more than thirteen hours! Shall we try a year a second? Can you work out how long the time travel will take us now? There won't be time to talk to anyone. At this speed you might just catch glimpses of scaffolding and guess from furniture, fixtures, walls and changes in light that the worshippers of the past were different from us, but don't forget that they too were worshipping in a very old building where their ancestors had worshipped. I'll try to pause from time to explain what we can see around us. By the way you'll need a few directions so try to remember that if you look forward you will be facing east, in the direction of the rising sun. (Did you know that many churches face east?)

Are you ready? We're OFF!
l year. . .2.. .3.. . continue counting up to 86 years and then STOP!
The year is 1914. Where has the beautiful coloured east window gone? (The stained glass east window by Kemp, a Victorian artist, was a memorial to Samuel Norman Roberts who was killed in the First World War. It was commissioned and paid for by his heartbroken father.) Can you work out why the chapel in the north aisle is known as the Children's Chapel?

Just below the East window is a carved screen or reredos which shows Jesus sharing a meal with his disciples. This meal, which was the last they shared before his trial and crucifixion, is known as The Last Supper. Even today, Christians in Anston and throughout the world share that special meal with Jesus and all other Christians, when we kneel at the altar rail and take blessed bread and wine in a service we call Holy Communion. The repairs and restoration work of 1886 were largely carried out by the same family who had the windows installed. At the same time the carved oak pulpit (raised, enclosed speaking platform for the vicar to deliver his sermons from) was made and carved by a local man, William Kirby.

Back another twenty seconds (years) to 1868 and we can just hear some workmen outside the church fixing a clock on the west front of the tower. How many people have looked at that clock face as they hurried up the hill to church? As they entered church by the south porch facing north they, like you, would see a stone basin, or font.

During a baptism look carefully and you will see the priest make the sign ot tne cross when he baptises people with water. Baptism with water is symbolic. We use water to wash ourselves clean. The water of baptism is a symbol of Jesus washing us clean inside. Can you see any crosses in the church? On the altar perhaps? The cross is a very significant emblem to Christians because we believe that Jesus' death and resurrection, or return to life after death, make things right for us with God and many of our churches here and in other parts of the world are shaped like a cross. Sometimes you will see a cross with a model of the dying Jesus on it and sometimes the cross will be plain or 'empty'. This is meant to show that Jesus defeated death and sometimes Jesus will be be shown in majesty, like a king.

Now turn to face east again and glance across at the lectern. This is a stand which holds up the large Bible so that it can be read aloud to the congregation. Lecterns are often carved in the shape of eagles. The eagle is the emblem of St John the evangelist because like the eagle, he could see especially clearly. St John was able to see very clearly how important Jesus was before anyone else did. The eagle is also very powerful and fit to 'carry' the gospel around the world.

Are you ready to go back in time to one Sunday in the year 1743 during the reign of King George II? Yes, we were right - a fiddler and a flautist are tuning up to accompany the village choir in the West Gallery. The congregation will not expect to sing with the choir. They will be expected to listen to the preacher, to the priest and to the choir and they may well get bored with having so little to do except watch Squire Wright and his family and servants from the Hall at North Anston. He can afford to pay for the best and biggest box pews. Only a few of the pews are free for servants and the less well off. These are at the side and some face back towards the west door! It must be awful to have to sit here when there are only about thirty people present and lots of better pews are empty. Everyone will stand to say the Lord's Prayer and the Gloria, a prayer of praise which has been said since the fourth century. It will only be possible to take Holy Communion four times a year. Two brothers called John and Charles Wesley who didn't like services like this tried some new methods. John had begun to preach in the streets a few years earlier and Charles wrote cheerful hymns that the people could enjoy singing.

If we go even further back we will hear Puritan soldiers banging at the doors and smashing statues and glass. Back still further and in nearby Laughton the people are busy looting Roche Abbey to build their homes. (King Henry VIII set about closing the great abbeys and monasteries and after 1539 local people would notice that its nine great bells would no longer ring out over the valley.) The custom of bell-ringing would come from France and most of the bell-towers would be strengthened so they could stand the strain of supporting the heavy bells. Bells call us to prayer and the way they are rung can tell us whether a happy or a sad occasion is about to take place. At many times in England's history church bells have been rung to warn the people of danger or invasion. ( Bell-ringing has been forbidden at times . During wartime for instance, the sound of ringing bells could have guided enemy aircraft to vital targets, but at the end of war bells were rung throughout the land in celebration. More recently the bells were rung at mid-day on January 1st to celebrate the beginning of the third Millennium or in other words two thousand years of Christianity ).

As we travel back to the fifteenth century we will find that we have no bell-tower; back another hundred years and the roof is lower and instead of the south aisle the nave is bounded by a plain wall with smaller windows. The large chancel has not yet been built and the nave ends in a semi-circular apse. It's back to 1380 and at last there is an English Bible translated by John Wycliffe, but we can't read yet. Never mind, we can 'read' the painted Bible stories on the walls and if we look ahead and try not to be frightened by the grinning, grotesque faces representing evil on the corbels, we can smell the sweet incense that the priest is swinging from a censor at the 'Hie Aulter' behind a rood screen. High up above the screen is a carved statue of Jesus on the cross with Mary, his mother and St John, his best friend on either side.

Another hundred years back in time and there is no north aisle now, just a wall with smaller windows. We are standing - perhaps we should be kneeling, on the bare earth floor of a small mediaeval church which has probably been built by the lord of the manor to save him having to travel all the way to the Mother church at Laughton. It is small - only a nave and a sanctuary and that is how most churches had been for at least three centuries when the Saxons built them. Before that people worshipped in the open air. The priest would erect a cover or sanctuary to protect the altar and the people would erect a simple structure to protect themselves from wind and weather. A simple church building was created when the two were put together. It's been a long journey back to this point and we haven't even mentioned how Christianity reached our shores. We'd better come back to the 21st century now but I hope you will want to find out more for yourself about how Christians have worshipped and lived together in Anston for more than eight hundred years. You might also like to read John Fisher's excellent book, Anston (and its Ancient Parish Church) and we hope you will come and visit the church yourself.

People have worshipped in this church for centuries - children, young people, families and older people. Whoever you are, why not come and join us? Everyone is welcome.

This web site © Tim Sweed (TS Web Design)