Church cross ‘takes the hit’ of lightning strike

appears to me valid, has yet been raised against them; and were I allowed to choose between having masts so fitted and the contrary, I should not have the slightest hesitation in deciding on those with Mr Harris's conductors.

“Whether they might be farther improved, as to position and other details, is for their ingenious inventor to consider and determine. He has already devoted so many years of valuable time and attention to the very important subject of defending ships against the stroke of electricity; and has succeeded so well for the benefit of others – at great inconvenience and expense to himself – that it is earnestly to be hoped that the Government, on behalf of this great maritime country, will, at the least, indemnify him for time employed and private funds expended in a public service of so useful and necessary a character.”

Harris died on 22 January 1867. q • A full account of Harris’s life and work, by ATLAS committee member Marc Pilkington, is available to view on the ATLAS website at www.atlas.org.uk

[LIGHTNING DAMAGE to churches is, mercifully, rare these days – a testament both to the efficacy of modern lightning protection systems and the high-rise world we live in, in which churches are no longer the stand-out buildings they used to be. So when the cross at St Peter’s Church in Parkstone, Poole, Dorset, was damaged by a lightning strike on the night of 4 June, it was front page news in the local press and even made the nationals the following week.

The strike also caused significant damage to the church and the electrics. Damage to electrical systems is the most common damage caused by lightning, according to insurers Ecclesiastical, and it was the first thing to be noticed by the church warden.

Revd Mike Trotman told local press: “We had a service at 8am on Sunday morning and I got a call from a church warden as I was waking up saying we had a problem with our electrics – I don’t think he’d noticed the cross.”

It was Revd Mike himself who noticed that one of the arms of the cross atop the church had been blown off by the blast. It became an item of faith that it was the cross that bore the brunt of the ‘bolt from the heavens’ and not any of the inhabitants.

The following day the church’s Facebook page read: “On Saturday night, 4th June, lightning struck this stone cross that sits on the east side of St Peter’s Church. How fitting that the cross took the hit. This is the gospel: the cross of Jesus Christ bears all the burdens, all the pain and all the sorrow of the world. What a Saviour we have!” q

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