toller fratrum church, dorset

this tiny mid c19 cell of a church holds two c12 treasures and a modern story. the carving over the altar and the font, both of c.1130 ; the story is of the parishoners declaring independence from the diocese, the bishop having wished to close the church and the parishioners wanting it to stay open. they say it's all because the vicar wanted to impose happy clappy worship, and treated them like children, whilst they preferred the book of common prayer, so now they are not allowed to call their meetings a service and do without a vicar. good enough for trollope, or an ealing comedy, and wonderfully english, but it also raises the question of who morally owns the parish churches of england, often built with lay funds and full of our history, yet at the mercy of the church when it closes them and even sells them sometimes.