A New Day Dawning

Reflections from Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry — the resting place of C.S. Lewis

As I’ve traveled across England, I’ve noticed a recurring symbol above many Protestant church steeples — a rooster.

It’s not merely decorative. The rooster has deep roots in Christian symbolism. It reminds us of Peter’s denial, yes — but also his repentance and restoration at dawn. Yet for the Reformation Church, the rooster became something more: a proclamation that a new day had broken over Christ’s people.

After centuries of spiritual darkness, the Reformation declared that light had returned — the Church had awakened once more to the truth of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

The rooster crowing at sunrise became the perfect emblem: the night is over, the morning has come, and the Church is alive again.

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The Church of C.S. Lewis

This particular steeple belongs to Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, where C.S. Lewis worshiped for more than thirty years — and where he is buried beside his brother, Warren.

Standing at his grave, surrounded by ancient stone and quiet trees, I looked up and saw that golden rooster gleaming against the gray Oxford sky. How fitting that Lewis — who wrote of The Dawn Treader and the “morning after the end of the world” in The Last Battle — would worship beneath a symbol of dawn.

For Lewis, Christianity was always about awakening.

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen,” he wrote, “not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

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The Call Still Rings Out

Every time I see that rooster now, I think of the Church in every generation — called again and again to rise, repent, and return to the light of Christ.

The world may grow dark, but dawn is always coming. And when it does, the rooster will crow once more, announcing that a new day has dawned.