It’s a great privilege to serve as a priest in a beautiful, historic church building.

I love it that St Leonard’s has been a Christian presence in Sandridge for more than 900 years, and that generations of families have links with the church.

The church is a beautiful place to attend worship, get married in, to hold a christening, to attend a concert or to visit our annual flower festival.

St Leonard’s is one of around 16,000 church buildings that the Church of England maintains across the country. Each is supported by a dedicated group of volunteers who make sure their local church is there to serve their community. I’m deeply grateful for all that they do.

But it’s not the full story.

If the Church of England is just a heritage organisation like the National Trust, or a tourist organisation like Visit England, we might as well close our doors tomorrow. For me, it would be time to hang up my dog collar.

Because I have a vision for St Leonard’s and for all the parish churches across our country.

It’s about churches being thriving centres of Christian love in their communities. It’s about churches being places that hurting people can go to find compassion and support. It’s about churches being places where people meet with the living God, and find new life for themselves.

I pray, step by step, we may work towards that reality.