The Church is beautiful tonight but...

​The Church is Beautiful … But
I generally think that everything that comes after the but… shouldn’t be said
I’m not sexist, But….
I don’t mean to be offensive, But …
But…
The church was beautiful tonight, I could hear the organ playing, the lights shining out into the darkness, a picture-perfect scene of the church at Christmas and for a moment It held me in its pre-Christmas bubble of carol singing, peace and goodwill, all wrapped up in frosty air and candle light. And then…
The bubble broke
The reality was that the church was in a bubble, whilst in the church yard, the shoppers, with their bags overflowing were hurrying past. the commuters, with their briefcases and coffee were hurrying past, the school children, with their rucksacks of books and hands full of fast food were hurrying past, the moms towing small children with pushchairs overflowing with presents. Were all hurrying past. The vicar on his way into the church was hurrying past…
The only people to be looking on, to be still, to be in that moment, were the people without homes, the people who were wrapped in their sleeping bags, sitting on the benches, there whole worlds packed into their carrier bags and in that moment, for me the bubble burst
The Church was still beautiful, but…