Holy Trinity

John Betjeman, the patron saint of the English parish church, invented the term ‘church-crawler’ in 1948. Rachel Morley acknowledges his genius in this charming guide. But by her own admission she stands at one remove from similar church addicts. Yes, she’s fully qualified, as the director of the marvellous organisation Friends of Friendless Churches, founded in 1957. But she is in fact Irish, born and bred in Cork. She’s learnt about England through its parish churches and makes a convincing argument that they are the key to English art, architecture, the national character and even the language. The name of the 7th-century Ely nun St Etheldreda mutated into St Audrey, which gave us the word ‘tawdry’ to describe the cheap fripperies sold on St Etheldreda’s feast days.

A familiar defence of Anglicanism holds that flowers of principle bloomed in the mucky soil of compromise. Yes, this idea runs, the Church of England that evolved from Henry VIII’s marital strife was indeed a theological hotchpotch; but there is nevertheless much to be said for a tolerant strand of Christianity forming a middle way between Roman Catholic and hardline Protestant alternatives.   The perceived breadth of Anglicanism has long remained its selling point. Like the proverbial Australian farm, it is (or was) a Church with few fences but many wells. Elasticity over matters of secondary importance used to apply at a structural level.