23/04/2026
St George’s Church, Fordington, sits on a rise above a village green in Dorchester, Dorset. From the outside it looks like many English parish churches. Step closer, though, and you notice something unexpected. Above a Norman doorway is a carved tympanum showing St George on horseback, charging into battle (🔍take a closer look).
“It’s right there as you come in,” says the Rev Cora Yarrien, who has been vicar of St George’s for the past five years. “You can walk straight past it and ignore it - or you can be challenged or inspired by it.”
The carving is thought to depict St George’s miraculous intervention at the Battle of Antioch: not the familiar dragon-slayer, but a saint imagined as a heavenly protector, riding to the aid of the faithful. It’s an unusually early image in England, and a reminder that the story of St George has always been complex.
“But that’s one of the wonderful and weird things about the Church of England,” she says. “We worship in buildings that people have been worshipping in for centuries. We live alongside history. And those stories can still inspire us, if we allow them to.”
If the tympanum roots St George’s in the early 12th Century, St George’s Day itself is very much in the present. Each year, the parish marks the saint’s day with a fair on the green: cream teas, books, music, jam, cakes.
“It’s probably one of our biggest community events,” Cora says. “When I talk to families at weddings, funerals, christenings, they’ll say, ‘Oh yes, I know your church. I come to the fair. Or I come on Christmas Eve for the crib service.’ In lots of ways, it’s community outreach.”
The fair, held on the Saturday closest to 23 April, is opened by a town crier and sometimes the mayor - a civic as well as church celebration. For many, it will be their only encounter with St George’s all year. And that matters.
“It’s wholesome, family fun,” Cora says. “But it’s also about connection. People seeing the church as part of their lives.”
On the Sunday in Church, which is the Patronal Festival (where churches celebrate their own saint), Children are “knighted” at the patronal service, choosing their own chivalric names - “Sir Reads‑a‑Lot”, “Lady Kind‑Hearted.”
“Lots of what we think we know about St George is fantastical,” says Cora. So I wouldn’t recommend anyone goes off to slay literal dragons, but we do keep it light!”
In linking the day to what we can reflect on spiritually, Cora points to the Church of England’s collect for St George, with its emphasis on recognising the risen Christ.
“I love those moments of confusion and recognition in the resurrection appearances,” she says. “And that reference in the collect brings St George into that space. It’s not about heroics so much as understanding who Christ is and how we serve others.”
“Sometimes our national symbols can be used in ways that are unhealthy or unhelpful,” Cora says. “But we don’t know much about George beyond his love of God and his service. For Christians, that’s what matters.”
St George’s is a thriving church which serves its worshipping and wider community.
“All are welcome,” Cora says. “All are loved by God - all ages, all races, all sexualities. I want people to feel welcome in the space. And I hope they encounter not just friendly faces, but something of the love of God as well.”
The Collect for George, Martyr, Patron of England
God of hosts,
who so kindled the flame of love
in the heart of your servant George
that he bore witness to the risen Lord
by his life and by his death:
give us the same faith and power of love
that we who rejoice in his triumphs
may come to share with him the fullness of the resurrection;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen