Church Going is a poem descriptive of a journey to find meaning, particularly the meaning of religion and the church.  In the poem, the narrator goes alone on a journey of discovery. This journey is one within his own mind but, he must also travel and discover a physical reality in the church that leads him to his epiphany. The entire exploration of the church and its contents are important him because they are the only connection he has with its history.  The narrator is primarily concerned with the future of the church. It is nearly impossible to build a foundation for his theory of the future without first understanding the past.  He peers inside the church and upon realizing that the church is absent of activity, he goes inside (2).  This is notable because throughout the “Church Going,” the speaker’s concern is how other people feel about the church, what they know about it, and who will continue to be aware of its importance in the future.  Since most of the worry that presents itself within the poem is simply a potential scenario that occurs within the mind of the narrator, only the narrator himself is needed to understand the importance of religion.  

The church appears to be very old.  Descriptions of the books and flowers that have died contribute to the development the setting (4-5).  At the beginning of the second stanza, a description of the roof is given.  It looks out of place because it appears new in a church that is most likely quite old.  This serves a purpose to the poem in an indirect way by making it clear that the church has been around for a long time, but also that people have been taking care of it continuously (11-12).  Why is the antiquity of this church so important?  This shows that it has endured through generations, and gives a window into a past that we can no longer maintain contact with.  The narrator has not yet realized the importance that this plays in his journey yet.

The narrator also makes note that someone must know why the roof looks the way it does, but he does not (12).  He admits to his own ignorance, though in a very subtle way.  Up to this point in “Church Going,” he seems to be a very curious and observant man, paying attention to the smallest details that most people would likely not even notice.  He does notice them, however.  This ignorance of his relates back to the reason that he came inside to begin with.  He is missing something that he believes he might be able to find in the church.  He states this in the third stanza, when he says: “Yet stop I did: in fact I often do, /And always end much at a loss like this, /Wondering what to look for” (19-21).  What he desires is unclear, but there is a sort of blame that goes onto the church for his not knowing what he needs.

In a somewhat unexpected turn of questions, the question is posed of the “inevitable” fall of religion and how long it will take (21-22).  This placement of seemingly unrelated questions is interesting because he first wonders what he is missing in life, and subsequently when churches will no longer be relevant.  These thoughts are quite dependent on each other, and it is no coincidence that they both occur to the speaker at the same time.  Right before this, it is stated that the visit to the church was of no importance, and it is also obvious that the narrator is lacking something that he feels quite empty without, which gives a sort of shame to the religious structure.  

The poem goes onto explain what life will be like when the church starts to fade.  The speaker says that there will be a “power” that will continue on even after the meaning is forgotten.  He uses examples about how the ideas of religion will show themselves in strange ways like rhymes or games, much like how children often do not know the meaning of the rhymes and games that they perform today, but they do them nonetheless (33).  In the next line, the narrator boldly compares the belief in religion to superstition.  When there is an awareness of religion, and also a disbelief in it, the meaning of it seems gone, but ideas still remain.  Then it goes from disbelief to people performing activities without understanding their meaning, and then the author asks “what remains when disbelief has gone?” (33-35). He imagines what life would be like without the church, and if life would be different at all.  Right now he appears convinced that when religion leaves, meaning, curiosity, and the search for wisdom will as well.

He imagines the church no longer as a holy building, but an abandoned one that has been taken over by nature due to a lack of care and nurturing.  As the building gets physically taken and obscured by the plant life, the purpose of it becomes less recognizable as well (36-38).  This is an interesting statement, especially considering that the narrator has not even come to realize himself what the purpose of the church is.  He is going through all of these thoughts in an attempt to make meaning out of the experiences he has had with it for the purpose of creating future scenarios that could somehow contribute to its importance.  Its meaning might be different depending on whether or not it can endure through time.

Now, somewhat fixated on the threat that religion may not go on indefinitely, an interesting idea of the last person to believe is proposed.  The person he imagines is obsessed with tradition, which does not have as much to do with a need for a religion itself, but the religion seems to almost fill a need that this last person already has.  For example, there is mention of the “Christmas addict” (43).  This person is described to have a need for the sensations that Christmas gives them, like smells, for example.  A need for fulfilling nostalgia is more representative of this last person than a dependence upon the beliefs of the church.  

Is this really the kind of person that counts as the last one to seek out the church?  He claims they seek it out for what it is, but is this true?  He has not even decided what the church’s purpose is yet, so he cannot claim who is seeking out the church for the right reason.  Even if he is not completely sure about who tries to involve themselves with the church for its intended purpose, yet he seems almost sure that he is not one of those people.  He is too disinterested and “uninformed” to be this kind of person (46).

The narrator believes this until he reaches his epiphany at the end.  He finds that the church in itself does not have very much meaning, but is more of a vessel for meaning.  The meaning lies within the individual and importance lies mostly in the care and meaning that the individual can provide.  They often channel their caring, search for meaning, or wisdom through the church, which makes it seem as though it is the source of all of these wonderful things.  This is likely why the speaker seemed to feel so much hopelessness when discussing how he thought that churches would eventually fall.  He realizes in the last stanza that the purpose of the church will always endure.

The journey that the subject of the poem takes is seemingly hopeless from the start, but at the end, it is very rewarding.  The subject attains reassurance that wisdom and faith will not die, and though original meaning of the church might not be maintained, the care behind the original meaning can always be remade and channeled through something new.  This knowledge can be applied to nearly anything in life.  The poem in itself is meaningful because it teaches that faith is not something that is lost, and that fear of losing it is more the enemy than anything else.
