Today’s papers have reports of the vicar of St Michael’s in Croydon leaving with his congregation to join the nearby Roman Catholic Church.
One ludicrous headline is ‘Protestant Croydon flock follows vicar to Catholic church’.
The fact is that Fr Donald Minchew and 69 people left at the beginning of Lent. St Michael’s Church still has around forty remaining in the pews.
As a church with outreach it is likely that the congregation will grow again.
St Michael’s was built in the 1880s to a design by JL Pearson. John Betjeman considered it to be “one of Pearson’s loveliest churches”.