In the Spring of 1979 I found temporary employment at Westminster Abbey. I was employed as a cleaner and spent most of my time in Poets' Corner. I recall one morning in particular when I was in Poets' Corner when I heard a loud voice say, ‘good morning! ‘ I turned around and in front me was the then dean The Rt. Reverend Dr Edward Carpenter. He asked me if I could come to see him in his study at 2.30PM that day. I agreed and he wandered off leaving me to wonder why on earth he wanted to see me.

At the appointed time of 2:30PM I knocked on the door to his study and I could hear his voice on the other side bid me to enter. Pointing to a chair he promptly told me to take a seat. When seated he said to me that he would like me to perform the once a month service in St. Margaret’s Church, beside and in the grounds of Westminster Abbey. He then handed me a copy of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer and The Hymnal. He explained that I would l have to conduct the service once a month for members of the House of Lords and meet the Queen twice a year. Stunned! I looked around waiting for a hidden camera crew to emerge from behind a bookcase or some secret passageway. He then told me to take the books and think it over for a few days. In something of a daze I picked up the books and walked out of his office.

A few days later I returned the books and thanked him for his offer and told him that I did not feel that it was for me. A week or so later in Poet’s Corner the same the voice greeted me, ‘good morning’ I returned the greeting and then asked him a question. ‘Why do we kneel down to offer prayers up to God? If God is omni-present he is neither up nor down nor left nor right.’ I told him that a good title for a book might be God, Grammar and Geometry. Speechless, he turned and walked off.

Oh yea, just like what Jehovahs witnesses told me when I was 16 years old, That their “Religion was the only real religion”.

Even though I was 16 and attending mass by requirement of both parents, this was the beginning of me turning away from this garbage. It took 11 years following this to become where I am now.

Did he ask you to look at the trees? That's what the door knockers around here tell me.

You will be like a hunted vampire now! They will come for you tonight, with torches, bibbles, and crucifixes! And they will chant their incantations and bibble-babble in front of your house, all night long!

Well, sometimes Truth hurts don't it.

Great comment.

Superstition to the religious is anything outside of their belief system. So god angels heaven is not superstiton fairies at the bottom of the garden is.

Poor God botherers, a tough crowd. You do know you’re meant to be part of a flock don’t you? Awful system.

You will be hounded out of town soon if you don't mend your ways.

I have no way to know what was in the pastor’s mind, but I can see an angle from which it could be a statement I could wholeheartedly agree with. There is nothing inherent in the concept we call religion that requires belief in anything at all, let alone things that aren’t true. The heart of most religions is really more about practice than belief, and the fact that so many religious people choose to believe things that aren’t true is little different from the fact that so many non-religious people do the same thing, just with a different set of falsehoods.

A good laugh is very medicinal.

Oh dear, you just committed the cardinal sin of trying to force him to use his brain! (Psst. His non-existent brain was given to him by his non-existent god.)

Remember that the Odained Pastafariann can cause some of those events