Some said there had been too much rain and the roof long cracked after years of stress gave way from water seeping in.

Others said what fell from the heavens had nothing to do with it, that the earth had shifted and the church walls had pushed out toward the town centre so that the massive mosaic of the Almighty Father had fallen in and left a hole, a silhouette of the icon that used to command the whole church from high above the nave.

Services now were held under the God-shaped hole: prayers said hymns sung infants baptised sermons preached offerings made couples wed communion celebrated the dead remembered.

Meanwhile reconstruction began, but it turned out harder than planned.

Some folks had taken home bits of the original mosaic as a piece devotion or historical curiosity, and when it was discovered there was not enough left to restore the original grandeur debates erupted if they should even try to recreate what was lost.

Some said they should begin and finish the project as quickly as possible because people were not coming as they used to since the icon had collapsed.

Others pointed out new people were entering the church curious about the place in a way they never were before. And these newcomers joined with those who had always been scared by the icons fierce eyes to suggest they replace the old image with a new one.

The differences about what to do broke into conflict so that for now the construction was nearly halted, though some workers tried to assemble the roof in bits and pieces.

But without an overall plan nothing would stay put. Even the stars that surrounded the hole began to fall from the ceiling so that another party arose suggesting they take down the entire edifice and start all over anew - except that the most devout could not bear to lose this or that where they had prayed so long and the stones were worn smooth by the knees of many generations.

So for the time being all that was done was to rope off the area beneath the God shaped hole to make sure no one was hit by a piece of mosaic that would fall from time to time from a cracked angel or star and to pray that people would keep coming while the church continued to be, as the sign alerting those who entered said: Under Reconstruction.

Thomas H Troeger

The poem is taken from ‘Preaching while the church is under reconstruction’ Thomas H Troeger Abingdon Press 1999. ISBN 0-687-08549-7 and appears by kind permission of the publishers and the late Mr Troeger’s family.