Comment by Harborough churches: There is something about history that maybe makes us wonder about 'something bigger'

Viewpoint by the Revd Alison Iliffe, Team Vicar in the Harborough Anglican Team

This week I spent 24 hours at Launde Abbey on the Leicestershire/ Rutland border as a time of relaxation and refreshment. As well as enjoying the lovely hospitality of the Abbey, I was struck by the sense of history – walking, talking, praying where others had done the same over the centuries.

Launde was founded as an Augustinian priory in 1119. Thomas Cromwell seems to have found an affinity there, declaring in his Remembrances “Myself for Launde”. His son Gregory is buried there with a monument erected by his wife Elizabeth Seymour which can still be seen in the Chapel today.

Whilst there I was reading a novel by C J Reeds called When the Railway went through, the beginning of which is set in Little Bowden in the 1800s. I enjoyed trying to work out the geography of Little Bowden then and seeing how much it has changed over the decades.

And over the summer we have been having a sort out at both the churches of St Nicholas and St Hugh, discovering things which build a picture of church life over the ages.

All this got me thinking about all that has gone before this present time and gives me a sense of being part of something bigger. Bigger in time and yet also bigger in understanding.

Over 30 years ago I was walking on a hill which we now call “sovereign hill” with my husband and I noticed a coin in the newly ploughed field. When we’d dusted it off we realised it was a gold sovereign from 1900. We spent most of the rest of that walk and at

times since, wondering who had lost that coin just there and if losing it might have changed their own history, as ours can be changed by small things having much bigger consequences.

The sense of being part of something bigger connects us through history to a time, a place or a people and perhaps helps us to understand who we are.

Many faiths have a belief that God is that “something bigger” who connects us. For me as a Christian it’s awe-inspiring that my relationship with God is with the same God that other Christians who went before worshipped, including those who have worshipped at any of our town or village churches. And it is the same God who will be worshipped by future generations, who in their own turn may think about us. My faith gives me the sense that with God there is something beyond this life, this world, that we cannot see. It gives me hope that I will be part of something bigger forever.

Whatever our faith, or none, there is something about history that maybe makes us wonder about “something bigger”.

By Revd Alison Iliffe, Team Vicar in the Harborough Anglican Team with responsibility for the Parish of the Transfiguration: St Hugh, Northampton Road and St Nicholas, Little Bowden.