If you are coulrophobic, you may want to pass on the following story, otherwise read on and learn about the the Clowns International Annual Service that took place at Holy Trinity Church in Hackney, in Greater London, England.
Given the widely touted decline of Christianity in Britain and the desperation of many of its churches to get bums on pews, any church that has people huffing and puffing in indignation about queue-jumpers is doing well.
The secret to this success? Clowns, a whole troop of them. The service that I was fighting so desperately to get into was the Clowns International Annual Service. It has been held on the first Sunday in February every year since 1946 to honour Joseph Grimaldi, the father of modern clowning, and to celebrate and encourage those generous souls who juggle and giggle, tumble and trip, wobble on unicycles and generally offer themselves up for our entertainment.
The service was led by the Reverend Roly Bain, an incongruous blend of cleric and clown. His dog collar was pretty standard for an Anglican priest but the long checkered robes and rouged cheeks with crosses in the middle distinguished him from the average vicar.
Read the rest here.