Starting somewhere

This blog doesn’t attract so many hits that anyone seems to have missed me, but for the record, I’ve been in Dublin for a long weekend, and most enjoyable it was. The first sight to be visited turned out to be the most apposite, as far as Sanctuary UK goes. The Tourist Information Centre is housed in the former St Andrew’s Church, and a vast improvement it undoubtedly makes of the place, though in this land where identity is supposedly all to do with religion, this gothic siting of a cash machine gives one occasion to reassess modern Ireland.
Not that Sanctuary UK, by definition, has anything to do with eurocentric, optimistic Eire. A number of people whose advice I’ve sought have said I really ought to be serious about the UK bit, though, and not just focus on England, or worse still, the Church of England. Bring in Scotland, Wales, the Methodists, the Catholics, and the rest.
That’s all very well, but you have to start somewhere, and the fact is, England’s bizarrely established Church provides some useful ready-made structures, which saves the trouble of inventing them. (Who could invent the Church Commissioners?) If we can find a way of getting Sanctuary UK to work with a significant percentage of England’s listed churches, then there’s every reason to share such success as far and wide as you like. One day there might be a Sanctuary.de or Sanctuary.fr – or yes, even a Sanctuary.ie.