Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

Small earthquake in Britain, none dead

If you look closely at this church, St Thomas' in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, you can see atop it a little stone cross. Well, the cross is there no more. It fell off during the little earthquake that hit Britain at about 1am today. The headline in the local press is: 'Massive earthquake hits Rasen.'

Jesus 'saves'....

... but has he saved up enough to save Westminster Cathedral? This great building, not even finished yet, is appealing for £3 million to prevent its enforced closure in a decade or so. We report this in TimesOnline. Down there this morning for the launch of its £3 million restoration appeal, I was interested in the banner strapped across the door: 'Westminster Cathedral is in urgent need of your help.' This notice is so counter-intuitive in the UK, where normally the boards outside churches are keener to tell us how much we need their help, or Jesus' help. It reminded me of all the 'Jesus saves' jokes, like 'Jesus saves, Moses invests', or the old one about Satan wondering why he kept deleting files on his laptop by mistake. (If you don't know it, work it out...)

On higher ground

Tewkesbury Abbey stands in what has become a "medieval island parish" above the flood line.

This is because "monks knew where to build where the government doesn't" according to Canon Paul Williams, vicar at the Abbey. Tewkesebury is also a reminder that these floods are not unprecedented. Before there had been even an industrial revolution, or the world had heard of global warming, Tewkesbury suffered far worse floods than we see today. In 1760, as The Times reports today, the Vicar at the Abbey had to row down the aisle to take his service.

As churches in Falmouth, Cornwall prepare to unite in praying for sunshine this weekend, the highest ground in Tewkesbury has for the last five days become a refuge and a beacon to those stranded in the floods. On Saturday the Abbey and hall took in over 200 people who found themselves cut off by the floods. But the deluge did not stop normal life altogether, a couple were married in a truncated service on Saturday. Canon Williams said "We played her in, married them and played them out, so they could go to their honeymoon as man and wife".