A a Catholic aristocrat, I always have mixed feelings about the Faith after Holy Week.
It is the best time to be a Roman Catholic, a moving time that helps one feel at once connected with Catholics everywhere, to feel timeless almost, as if you where somehow here and also there when the Greatest Story Ever told reached its cliffhanging climax.
Easter vigil Mass, for those who don't know, is much longer than normal, and my parish priest - getting on a bit in years – was under a lot of stress this year.
The few of us who turned up to parade round with our candles and listen to the seemingly endless lists of readings did so, I think, with a sense that something has to change before the church in England dies on its knees.
What will happen to the Church? Its aging congregations are dwindling each year a little more. Even the little old men who take care of the offertory and the wee women who polish and arrange flowers, people you thought would be there forever, are starting to drop off the twig.
The pressure on numbers will mean that soon more churches will have to close. Some of those communities will join the new parishes, others will melt away.
In the sermon on Easter Saturday the priest talked of a cultural revolution that is beginning in the Church.
I feel that's the right right track, a Church should emerge that is less about doing things properly, less about condemning sin and more about experiencing all the beauty of the Mass, the fullness of the scriptures and closeness to all people of faith.
Remember, the Church is not about Popes, priests and bishops, it's about all the people in it, be they rule-breakers or not.
It's also encouraging that the Church is standing up against this Frankenstein bill currently before parliament, which aims to turn us into mutants or at least stick two fingers up at the norms of English life.
That's what we need now, some old-time leadership and new thinking. Not compromise, just a new confidence.
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