The old church at the back of Lightning Ridge Opal fields, NSW the dead tree has gone, 2022

Once used in some movie a few years ago. .

You should see the Fantastic ceiling in this little church!
www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

see Heritage listing site www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/heritagesearch.aspx

P8200366 Church

See where this picture was taken. [?]

see link on the God problem..discussion by Ian Guthrie..
www.bobbrinsmead.com/t_Distinctions_Part3.html

Sunday school and all that..

If we cut ourselves off from our inherited culture, and are ignorant of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, the hymns, psalms and paraphrases, we are diminished.
What comes into your head when you hear the word ''pilgrim'' - not, admittedly, a frequent occurrence these days?

For some it may be the Pilgrim Fathers and the Mayflower, but for many it must be: ''Hobgoblin nor foul fiend/Shall him dispirit.'' Or some other lines from John Bunyan's great hymn: ''Who would true valour see/Let him come hither,'' which actually has an alternative first line: ''He who would valiant be.'' Anyone brought up in one of our Protestant churches will have sung that hymn, To be a Pilgrim. As a child I always used to belt out the hobgoblin and foul fiend line, albeit tunelessly.

Even today it's a favourite, and sometimes appropriate, funeral hymn.

Now, a group in the Church of England is so concerned about the seeping away of our inherited Christian culture that - alarmed by the discovery that even the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments are unfamiliar to many - it is offering parishes what it calls ''the pilgrim course'' to teach ''the basic tenets of Christianity''. ''Give us each day our daily bread,'' as you might say.

This seems an excellent idea, whether you are a believer and practising Christian or not. The fact is the Bible, in the Authorised or King James version, the Book of Common Prayer, Hymns Ancient and Modern and the Church of Scotland's Church Hymnary, with the metrical psalms and paraphrases, are as much a part of our culture as Shakespeare's plays, the novels of Scott, Austen and Dickens, the poetry of Milton, Burns, Wordsworth and Tennyson, or, for me and many other Scots, the Border ballads.

All represent a rich treasury on which we draw, often unthinkingly, without premeditation or conscious search. These days I would usually describe myself as an ageing agnostic who is no longer a churchgoer but one whose head, on account of family upbringing, school chapel and years of church attendance long ago, is so stocked with the words, phrases and sentences of Christian literature that they come unbidden to mind.

In the occasional moments of self-reproach, which may disturb even the most complacent of us, I find myself muttering the words of the General Confession: ''We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep ... We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.'' And (if I remember rightly): ''There is no health in us.'' Or the opening line of the Nunc Dimittis: ''Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.''

They offer a strange sort of comfort, even though one may have no desire at all to depart. This is partly, I think, because we know these words connect us not only to our own youth but to the generations that have gone before us.

Modern culture often seems to be horizontal. By this I mean that in the multitudinous Babel – or babble – of the world today, so copious in information, with our ears battered by sound and our eyes dazzled by computer screens, we may be ignorant of so much that has gone before. This is a form of provincialism. To be confined to one's own time is like being confined to one's own street. There is doubtless much of interest in that street but there is more beyond it.

A true culture is vertical; it reaches back into the past. Our inherited culture is Christian and, even if you cannot accept the message of Christianity or its fundamental premise that God created and orders the world, knowledge of our Christian heritage and literature is an enrichment of experience that may free us from the provinciality of the merely modern.

There is an exchange in James Elroy Flecker's play Hassan that makes the same point in another way. The Caliph says to the poet: ''If there should ever arise a nation whose people have forgotten poetry, or whose poets have forgotten the people, though they send their ships round Taprobane and their armies across the hills of Hindustan, though their city be greater than Babylon of old, though they mine a league into earth or mount to the stars on wings – what of them?''

To which the poet replies: ''They will be a dark patch on the earth.''

Well, today we do indeed mount to the stars on wings and mine a league into the earth or deep into the oceans. We know much that even the best-informed of our ancestors never knew, or even supposed might be known.

Yet, if we cut ourselves off from our inherited culture, and are ignorant of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, the hymns, psalms and paraphrases, we are diminished. We may indeed be that ''dark patch on the earth''. The 121st psalm says: ''I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.'' The hills we see, range behind range, lead us into the past, and the words of the past, coming unbidden to the mind, bring comfort and reassurance.

Telegraph, London

Read more: www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/the-past-is-always-prese...

Taken in: Australia / New South Wales / Lightning Ridge (show map)

Taken on: August 20, 2003

Tags:

Wiggley Tin

#roundaustraliawithspelio

Australia

travel

outback

rural

decay

corrugated

iron

rust

worship

sistine

geotagged

chapel

777views15-01-12

linked

joke

Favs

Favourites

Favorites

god

christianity

added-to-Gallery

1134views01-02-14

1000

Fave

6516views25/07/18

added to a Gallery

8015views01-06-22Groups

Fav

remote

explored

Flickrexplore « less

Sets appears in: • A random selection of good shots • 1000+ views more » • Added to a Gallery • Favourites by others of my shots. • Things we see from behind the lens! • Travel NSW • Sing Australia Choir Gigs • A Selection... « less

Groups appears in: • Australian Images • Australian Travel Images more » • random • Australia trip • Flickr Addicts • Churches - Please read the rules before posting • visit the world - the travel guide • Travel Photography • Church Exteriors • Church Groups Directory • UrFavs • Flickritis: over 87,000 waiting for a vaccine. • Rural Australia • Old Structures. • Pictures are worth more than a thousand words • Australiana • Pictures That Boggle Your Mind • Corrugated • Trove: Australia in Pictures • Traveller's World • Flickr clickr • Views 5000 • * Travel Photography for World Nomads * • Flickr Australia • *Inspirational Travel Photos • Old Buildings & More..... • Barns, Sheds and other Rustic Rural Buildings • TRAVEL Photography! • 5000 VIEWS(must have 5,000 views) • worldwidewandering - a travel atlas • Flickr Over 50 • Corrugated Roof Sheets • Outback Australia • Picture Australia: Ourtown • Australian Elite Images (50+views, 10+faves) • Project worldwide (pictures of places around the world) • Landscape: The best Group on Flickr • We travel the World • My Kind of Picture Gallery • Traveler's Photos • Australia-down-under • World Photography - Public Photos - Traveling - Life • AUSTRALIA, THE ADVENTURE • I am flickr! - No 30/60 Limit • Australian Stuff • GEOTRAVEL FOTOLOGUES • The World of Travel • Australian Architecture • Australia on Flickr • Australian Churches and Places of Worship • ...Australia... • *Flickr's BEST* - SERIOUS Photographers - Post 1/Comment 3 • Travelling Lens • *FLICKR's PRO PHOTOGRAPHERS* [No AI or SL] • ! Flickr Cafe ! • flickr in 6 degrees of connection • World Travelogue • Lets Travel Together • ***Flickr Global • Beautiful Decay • Flickr Social Club • Travel - Around the World • Picture Theatres of Australia • NSW, Australia • World Travel: Geotagged Only • National Parks Traveler • Flickr P&S Camera Club • Corrugated Iron Buildings • Australia by tips4travels • Flickr OBSESSION' • Flickr Photos Club • Around Australia • TLP - Travel Light Photography • Flickr Photographer • Louisa's Australian Gallery • flickr (unofficial) • Flickr - Dappled Light & Shadows • Travelling Vicariously • brilliant flickr • 100 Views Unlimited • TRAVEL&LANDESCAPE • Australia's Gallery of Excellence • Travel Photography - Through the eyes of the world • Today's Flickr • Pictures of the World. • Flickr Explore It • Explore Flickr (unofficial) • flickr world wide • FLICKR ELITE • Group for all users of FLICKR - No 30/60 Groups Limit • 1.000 / 1000 views at least (NO LIMITS, NO 30/60) • The Traveler's Bucket List • Flickr the best of the best only • I am a Traveler • THE PICTURE ONE • Travels With My Camera - Australia • ㋡ SMICKR = SmugMug + Flickr ㋡ • Flickrology • A PLACE TO VISIT. AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. • Flickr Power Users • Australian Photographers over 60 years • Flickr New South Wales (No 30/60 limit) • Anything Australia - Unlimited (No 30/60 restriction) • S. E. Australia (No 30/60 Limit) « less

Camera: OLYMPUS OPTICAL CO.,LTD C3040Z, f/6.3, 1/320 sec, 11.9mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	OLYMPUS OPTICAL CO.,LTD C3040Z
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Focal Length:	11.9mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	v354p-73
Show full info

Stats: 9,036 views / 20 comments

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: