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Good Morning

Many years ago I was in Venice at the height of the summer.  July, August – I can’t quite remember – but it was hot and sticky and mobbed.  The quietest places to escape the sun and crowds, were churches. A good thing, since I had come to Venice to track down paintings I loved which were in churches, not art galleries.

Titian’s ‘Assumption of the Virgin’ – that was the big one on my list.  I’d seen pictures of it in art books, and I knew it was in the Basilica dei Frari.  After some time wandering through the hot streets, I found the church and dived inside.   No entrance fee, no crowds of tourists – just a door to push open, and the embrace of cool stillness. In front of me, at the far end of the nave, the crimsons and blues and yellows of Titian’s painting shouted out life and joy into the musty gloom.

Churches with doors open: they were everywhere in Venice, and not just the big famous ones, but the small, tucked away ones, where you could slip in, sit down and be still.  Church doors open every day to everyone.  It reminds me of the story of St Clement’s, Notting Dale.  It’s beside Grenfell Tower.   In the early hours after the fire, the Rev Alan Everett received a call from a priest who lived in the tower.  Alan went straight to the church, and, he said, ‘opened the doors and turned the lights on’.  And people started coming.  And the church became a place of help and sanctuary, for all who needed it.

God, who is everywhere, never confined by buildings or narrow tradition – this morning bless and strengthen the men and women who open doors to the world  - to offer your love.   

AMEN