I met a bunch of friends last night to go to the St. Giles Fair in Oxford, only to find that the fair didn’t start until today. Yesterday, it seems, was a setup day, and even though everything looked ready to go last night, nothing was moving. . . except people. Apparently the memo never got out to most of Oxford, and a good number showed up expecting a good time at the fair. Instead, they got an interesting surprise. On the carousel stood a priest and a boys choir, preaching to the slightly confused crowd. I’m not a huge fan of taking advantage of people to get your message across. There’s a difference between establishing normal hours for a service in a church (or anywhere else, really, as long as it’s not in a public place) and catching people unawares.

To be fair, it may have been different than I perceived. Perhaps the church thought that the crowd may enjoy a bit of music to make them feel better after the disappointment of not having the fair. If that was the case, then I applaud their foresight. Since my time watching showed something more like a service than a performance though, I feel it the intentions of the church may have been more towards conversion than entertainment.

Such a funny little world we have.