IMMORTAL, INVISIBLE

Yesterday I did something I've never done before.

Yes. I played a harmonium.

My friend and I had gone on a cycle ride, and I said, "I'd like to visit that church."

We did.

It was a fine little church, still holding services to three or five communicants every third Sunday. Not much call for the harmonium. Still, when two or three are gathered together....

"What's your favourite hymn?" I asked.

"Immortal, invisible, God only wise.."

I turned to the page in the hymnal, pulled out a couple of stops, began pedalling, and gave him a few verses.

Not a bad sound, and I did a bit of Grand Wurlitzer-style lingering on some of the chords, to work the echoes and eddies of the acoustics.

"I'll have done twenty miles more than you," I said at one stage, struggling with coordinating my fingers and the pedalling you've got to do with one of these things.

We then sat in the church pews and had a long theological discussion, in which, loving man that he is, my friend accommodated my own stew pot of pagan, Zen, Catholic and downright weird.

Conclusion?

Define God as the universal, positive, elemental and harmonious flow of life force which builds and binds the Universe constantly, and asking "do you believe in God?" becomes like asking "do you believe in hands?"

That little church did its business well yesterday, congregation or no. There we were, the two of us, for a few moments, united in consideration of the sublime. The old building held, harboured and perhaps even engendered our awed and respectful tones.

Now, all together for the next verse:

But of all thy rich graces, this grace, Lord, impart
Take the veil from our faces, the vile from our heart.