No longer fit for purpose

Secular Britain

Churches no longer fit

For the progressives or the pleasure-sated

Are repurposed for tourism - souvenirs and tasteful handicraft

And, as for the gorgeous refracted glory of the stained glass windows,

The throngs could be bathing in them;

Instead they peer at coloured frames of saints on postcards.

And thus it was ordained by the new secular priesthood

In a Brave New World

Of endless soma

Banishing the spiritual, the transcendent

As if they had been fact checked.

Congregations down to a trickle,

Fading out no doubt over the long march of the hammer and sickle.

A Huawei executive in China once declaimed to me

We have no God, so what can we place our faith in

Except for our children and their education?

These offspring are filling a God-sized spot

In the weary servants of a state,

Which knows best;

Whereas in the West

Culture is your friend, and

Humble thanks to our mass-media

Always on message,

Bringing the near-instant upliftment

Of the latest thing.