Sunday 7 September 2025
Our Lady Immaculate
A slight change to Mass this week for the anniversary of the consecration of Our Lady Immaculate church in Whitstable back in 1908. Actually it had been a few days earlier, on Wednesday. But it was moved to Sunday “so we could have more people here.”
As part of his homily Canon P raised the question of why we have churches. God is everywhere after all, so why bother with them?
The reason that stood out to me was a church’s role as a spiritual home. Our home.
I started going to Our Lady Immaculate last December. It’s a modest place, albeit with it’s nearly completed new roof. There is very little baroque, just an icon here and there and some statues. The walls are cream cheese white, stained grey in places by years of dry radiator heat. Each week I resist an urge to run a finger through the soot.
There’s a Marian shrine with an image of Pope Francis still on show while we wait for a Pope Leo replacement to arrive. The pews are upright and wooden. The kneelers offer little understanding of the knees and lower back. Same for the cushion in the confessional, which has a lack of padding that keeps you honest. And the sound proofing needs some work. I’ve joined others in the queue for confession, each of us with our fingers in our ears.
These places, these spiritual homes, are unusual and cold on first look, especially to outsiders. The familiarity and warmth comes from repeated visits, and the people and spirit within them. Those things provide the feeling of home.