The bits that Chris missed out.

Being a newly acclaimed atheist, I thought the best thing to do would be to check out some places of worship. First up was St John the divine, the largest gothic Cathedral in the world

The Cathedral is beautiful. You know that saying that something is ‘jaw-dropping’….well upon entering my jaw did actually drop quite a long way. So long in fact, that my chin bruised itself on the floor, and I stood there looking profusely stupid, until I managed to pull my mouth back up and hold it together while I raised my eyebrows instead. Inside the roof is so high, that I could barely see the ceiling. There is detailed ornamentation typical of ’supernatural castle on a hill’ type architecture (my favourite), and there are lots of crevices to explore, where darkness clings to the walls. There were also stained-glass windows, and incredibly cool dudes like this guarding the place.

In the summer, they have brightly coloured peacocks strolling about in the ‘peace garden’. But in winter it is too cold for that, so there is just a sculpture of excessive violence. The picture is a bit dark to tell, but there is a decapitated head hanging by a crab’s claw at the bottom.

The next visit was to hear the Harlem Gospel Choir in concert. Ever since I saw Sister Act 2, I have wanted to go to see a full-on gospel performance. Some of my friends already know this, from when I was handed a leaflet in Liverpool which advertised such a thing. I got very excited and convinced a lot of people to come with me, only to find out that what we had actually come to see was a very scary cult. Said cult then turned up at my friend’s house the next day and told him that the tsunami was sent by God to punish evil people, and that if he didn’t join their community, he’d suffer a similar fate. Charles, if you are reading this, I’m sorry.

Knowing that most Christians are lovely, not not a bunch of psychos, I decided to try gospel again and dragged Chris along to sing some hallelujahs.

This time, it was everything I could have expected. They sang Oh Happy Day, had amazing harmonies, wore cool African clothes, and screamed ‘can I get a witness?!’ a good number of times. So I was pretty chuffed. As an added bonus, their show raises money for a variety of children’s charities. So if they are ever in your area, get in the groove and do some hand clapping.