The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

Church chat

Did you find it?

13/10/2020

In Church Chat on 23rd September we set you a puzzle – Could you find the piece of decorative plasterwork in the drawing.

If you’re still puzzling here is the solution:

In the photograph it shows up very clearly but not many people will have seen it in such detail since it was done. But the artist didn’t mind that. It’s the same in all our great buildings – work done to the highest standard even when it’s practically invisible to the naked eye. There are carvings in Lincoln Cathedral that you can’t SEE at all – you have to slide your hand in and feel them (well, you’re probably not allowed to do that anymore but you used to be able to). Craftsmen worked “for the glory of God” perhaps, and to celebrate the skill that God had given them – they did it because they could. A kind of prayer? I would say so. And if their prayer was in the building then is ours in maintaining and passing on to future generations?