Herongate is near Brentwood in Essex and ArtServe member Rachel Gallehawk used to attend the small wooden Methodist chapel (previously a Church of England building) until it was closed in 2023 due to dwindling members. This poem relates to the final thanksgiving service given for all the worship and work and love shown by past and current members and God's redeeming grace and love.

Other poems shared by Rachel are Seamless and Life-Saver

Herongate

The cool calm breath of God,

Stirs my senses,

As I enter this sacred space,

Shifting from one world to another.

 

I step across an imaginary threshold

Of the tangible and intangible,

The flow of timeless prayer and song

Rises, presses forwards, seeps from living wood

Reminders of those gone before,

Who laughed, cried and sang like us

Some I knew, and some whose presence still lingers on

Here - and - here – and here -

Countless, timeless embraces upon the air.

 

And so, I too, do linger,

Breathing it all in,

My senses alive, reaching out, reaching in,

At one with all.

I am gently drawn -

Into a coalescent shimmering of colour and light,

Which streams from above,

A window into the world where Christ, my Saviour was crucified.

A dark world triumphs, crowing, albeit briefly so

For love we remember, conquers all.

 

Herongate, a place where secular and sacred entwine,

A space within and without

An oasis of refreshing calm

Where we both arrive and then depart,

Friends all, united as one,

Forever grafted into our spirit

One heart, one world, one way.

 

This place, this - temple for a God

Whom some people claim does not exist,

I ask – in truth and love - how can He not?