Face to FAITH Decades went by before I felt the need to enter a church again. Not that I have any bad memories of them, in fact my memories were pretty good and could be summed up in interminable laughter between friends during the Sunday mass under the red nose of the priest who had placed us there to keep an equally red eye on us.

Once the service was over, we used to sneak off without a word to escape a second, rather less amusing sermon. I also have a memory of the 30 cts my mother used to give me for the collection which stayed in my pocket every Sunday to save up for the 3.50 Francs to buy a toy “Matchbox” car at the local tobacconists’ on the road to the house. It makes me sad but also gives me a wry smile that over the years I regularly measured my faith by admiring the little collection of cars I built up over the years. Enough to fill the entire drawer of a chest of drawers. Today it is with a free spirit and without any constraints that I enter by the door or window of an abandoned church to admire the light and take some pictures. I sometimes feel guilty but only when I think to myself that I probably was not the only child to keep the collection money to buy a toy given the state the church is in now. [Official Website]