Moving in mysterious ways

Our Mystery Worshipper is perplexed when they turn up for church but the doors are locked

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Icon of the Holy Trinity by Andrei Rublev

Time-travel news

St Sergius of Radonezh, who lived as a hermit in the forest and founded Russia’s Holy Trinity monastery, died today in 1392
25 Sep

Jesus lends a hand

The worship group goes into meltdown when the jumbo TV screen fails before the service – by Simon Jenkins
9 Sep 23

What we hope for

‘Faith is a sales assistant in a large department store’ – a poem by Rupert Loydell
9 Sep 23

Highway Church, Penryn

A very warm welcome, a decent cup of coffee, and a sermon on Thomas as a biblical superhero
13 Aug 23
Cornwall, UK

Christ’s Church of the Valley, Phoenix

Sermon by video, a communion snack, and ‘delicious coffee and food’ nowhere to be found at a Phoenix megachurch
3 Sep 23
Arizona, USA

St Michael’s by-the-Sea, Carlsbad

An organ and violin prelude top the bill at a service that was ‘high as a kite on its way to heaven’
13 Aug 23
California, USA
St George's, Bickley

St George’s, Bickley

Bells and smells, beautiful music, appropriate hymns, plus delicious coffee and cake
2 Jul 23
Bromley, London

Strange conversations

Rupert Loydell reviews two recent books, each a conversation between friends, including nun extraordinaire Sister Wendy Beckett
22 Mar 23

On holiday with the Lord

Travelling abroad this summer? Why not plan to warm a foreign pew in a church where you don’t know the language?
4 Jul 22
Amanda B. Reckondwyth churches

Mystery, worship, and Miss Amanda

Amanda B. Reckondwyth, long-standing editor of the Mystery Worshipper, processes down the aisle at the end of her service
30 Jun 22

Making the Bible wholly buyable

A new podcast takes a trip through the Bible but leaves one significant item of baggage at home – religion
27 Jun 22
Writz record cover

Looking down the wrong end of a telescope

Rupert Loydell looks back to the collaborations and collisions between church culture and the wider culture in the 1970s and 80s
20 Jan 22

Most popular

Sts Peter and Paul Oldham

St Peter & St Paul & All Saints

26 Sep 10
Oldham, Greater Manchester, England
All Saints, Traverse City, MI (Exterior)

All Saints

12 Jul 15
Traverse City, Michigan, USA

Church of Our Lady

All done decently and reverently – but where were the communion ministers?
24 Apr 22
St John's Wood, London
Park Cities Presby, Dallas, TX

Park Cities Presbyterian

The friendliest church of any our reporter ever encountered
9 Nov 08
Dallas, Texas, USA
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