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From Rev’d Richard Coles, cleric and broadcaster:

As autumn draws in we meet for the most hotly contested fixture in the town calendar: Interchurch Quiz Night.Ìý We gather at Chapel, home to the Independent Wesleyans, our colleagues – not competitors, thank you very much – in serving God and one another in Finedon.

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Teams of five form, and from the off, in spite of our good intentions, we pretty much divide along tribal lines, church and chapel, a faint memory of old rivalries which date back to at least the Civil War, four centuries ago.Ìý Mrs. Swan, who sets the questions, is one of ours, but wise and just as Solomon, shows us no favour, in spite of the barrage of totally unjustified challenges to her decisions, which are as final as they unpredictable. I don’t want to go on about it, but rejecting the answer ‘Canterbury’ in response to the question ‘where was Thomas A Beckett murdered?’ because it wasn’t precise enough was, we felt, harsh. We hardly meant outside the bus station.

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But the gander is up. Accusations of the surreptitious use of smartphones fly. Mild, even-tempered Vicars (ahem) suddenly reveal the beast within when we disagree whether Neil Armstrong came down the ladder to the lunar module forwards or backwards. Green china teacups rattle menacingly in their green china saucers. It suddenly feels as volatile as one of Gordon’s kitchens when the Michelin inspectors are in.

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And it’s fine. The rivalries are never less than good humoured, the competition never more than a step from hilarity, the wooden spoon awarded for last place as coveted as the box of chocolates for the first.Ìý

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When we get it right, I think we’re pretty good at holding together in spite of our differences, at marking out common ground on which we can meet, if only to disagree. Disagree without taking offence, willing to be open to one another and the possibilities of change, and to discovering something greater than the sum of our parts.

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It’s just a church quiz in a little Northamptonshire town; but in these furious, precarious, darkening times I think it shines a light.