When I was attending the Cathedral Council at Lincoln recently I suggested that they should make more of the fact that once upon a time, the Shrine of St. Hugh of Lincoln was once a major pilgrimage site. Thirty years ago only a handful of people walked the route to St. James of Compostela. Now, 300,000 a year do so. On 12 November the new Bishop of Lincoln is being consecrated. Perhaps Gabriel might make an imaginary walk from London to Lincoln calling at the places he might have done in centuries past, starting a couple of weeks before.

“This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones… I will say to my soul. You have plenty of good things laid up… But God said to him You fool, this very night a demand will be made for your soul.” (Luke 12:13-21)

Why do we worry so much about the transient instead of the eternal?