I was wandering around an exhibition of Dutch Masters.
The National Trust put some of their excellent collection of these paintings, mainly from the 17th century, on show at Petworth House, West Sussex. Among the items on display one particularly caught my eye. It was titled An Imaginary Church or Cathedral Interior by Hendrick van Steenwijk & Cornelius van Poelenburgh (see right). The title intrigued me. ‘What would the best church you could imagine look like?’, I thought.
Living stones
The Dutch were much influenced by the Reformation. The architecture in the picture is splendid, but we know that the church is a spiritual building of living stones (1 Peter 2:5), so I looked to see what the people depicted were doing.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …