Other times…

When we travel to Italy, we are surprised to see injunctions in all the churches reminding the faithful of the respect due to the holy place. Recently, the pastor of a Baptist church in Wales complained that young people came to divine service smoking, only thinking of throwing away cigars and cigarettes when crossing the sacred threshold. What would the old Welsh people of the previous generation have thought of such astonishment? Until fifty years ago, in most churches in Wales, the first words of the sermon were the signal for the male congregation to light the pipes. No one seemed to take a dim view of this custom.