ON SUNDAY I visited Winchester Cathedral, joining one of their services.

I regularly attend a church back home, but that's not why I visited. I visited because I thought it would be great to meet fellow Christians, to learn from different experiences.

So the most important part of the service to me was the tea and coffee afterwards. I headed to the area, gave my donation and got my tea.

Now I'm not a natural extrovert, I'm not very good at going up to people I don't know and introducing myself, especially when I'm in a foreign country on the other side of the world.

So I kind of just walked around awkwardly, looking at the walls, reading the various inscriptions.

Everyone else seemed to be talking to each other, but I was alone.

I saw a group of clergy, I thought at least they'll probably talk to me, so I made a particular point of walking very slowly past them, hoping one would stop me to say hi. I even made eye contact, but they just looked straight through me.

I walked out of Winchester Cathedral feeling the loneliest I've felt in a long time.

James Roper

Canberra, Australia