Last night, we arrived at a patch of Shropshire greenery just outside Shrewsbury on a beautiful early summer evening, and walked towards the Church of the 318 Holy Fathers at Sutton. While it looks like a modest medieval chapel, it rests on a ritual site carbon-dated to roughly 2033 BCE. This makes it one of the oldest continuously used plots in Britain.
We joined the congregation just before 6:00 PM for Great Vespers, stepping into a space about to be illuminated entirely by beeswax candles and about to be filled with the scent of burning resin. We were struck by the profound warmth and hospitality extended to us by the Sutton community. Inside, the ancient walls preserve remarkable medieval paintings depicting the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, a striking visual reminder of the deep, layered histories held within this single space.
Hearing Psalm 130 (“Out of the depths I cry to you…”) within those walls highlighted the core of a quiet, ongoing conversation carring on at Sutton down many ages.
What is becoming increasingly clear is how much this undivided, ancient story mattered to “Old” Sir Rowland Hill. When history has often split into different paths and traditions, Hill used the architecture and intellectual landscape of Soulton Hall to protect certain common, foundational threads. He saw the care of this heritages as a living responsibility to be shared across generations, and today, that responsibility continues.
Because this shared heritage belongs to the wider landscape, we are moving forward in close, collaborative dialogue with our friends in the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. And we are inviting exploration how the memory of the 7th-century Anglo-Saxon Bishop Erkenwald and the legacy of Sir Rowland Hill intersect with the contemporary Orthodox community.
