Ship of Fools: St Mary’s Dore Abbey, Abbeydore, Herefordshire, England

The Mystery Worshipper

Ship of Fools: St Mary’s Dore Abbey, Abbeydore, Herefordshire, England

Visiting a beloved 12th century village church for a service of inclusive language worship

Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here

Bishops Finger

Thank you @CoolDude for a fascinating Report about this lovely place. The website is well worth reading, as this is a benefice which really seems to have got to grips with the challenges offered by rural churches.

Their approach may not work everywhere, of course, but their imagination and sheer determination is greatly to be admired.

(BTW, for those interested in such things, this area used to be served by a delightful rural railway - the Golden Valley Railway - from Pontrilas to Hay-on-Wye, which became part of the Great Western, and was closed many years ago. The churches have survived rather better!).

Bishops Finger

ETA:

I mentioned in The Styx that when I explored one of the websites relating to this group of churches, my PC was suddenly infected by some sort of malware or virus, necessitating a complete reset.

The website listed in the MW Report is OK, as far as I'm aware, but I thought a warning might be appropriate if anyone wants to find out more.

@Amanda B Reckondwyth tells me that it is by no means unknown for church websites to be affected by Dodgy Stuff, and Miss Amanda has found this out the hard way...

Amanda B Reckondwyth

Well . . . I never got into trouble by browsing to a church website. My antivirus software usually catches any attempt to browse to a site that is suspicious. Whenever I am preparing a report, if my antivirus software warns me that the church's website is not safe, I don't include the link in the report. When I used to be the MW lead editor, I always checked websites included in reports that were submitted, and if my software warned me that the site was suspicious I edited the link out of the report.

I have, however, gotten into trouble via other sites. There is one site in particular that I won't name, but it caters to movie theater buffs and includes reports on old theaters that have closed and have either been repurposed or demolished. The site itself is safe, but some of the posts thereon are not. There was one post in particular that included what were described as links to old photos of a certain theater, but the links were actually to ransomware. Fortunately my antivirus software caught any attempt by the ransomware to infect my PC -- I am certain of that. But I will not browse to that particular site again.

Bishops Finger

Thanks, Miss Amanda. I should have made myself a bit clearer.

Alas! it behoves us all to be wary online, given the amount of Dodgy Stuff there is about, and to keep our antivirus provision up-to-date.