With its weathered brown bricks, cavernous neo-Gothic interior and rough urban surroundings, Saint Matthew’s is a typical Church of England building. Less typically, on September 14th it was bursting with 300 or so adults and almost as many children, women in dark floral costumes and toddlers with flashing trainers. Since a dwindling Anglican flock gave up the struggle, it has been leased to the Romanian Orthodox. “Wherever my compatriots go, they bring religion,” says their priest, Ioan Nazarcu. His community took over the church in Luton, north of London, in 2021, having outgrown a smaller ex-Anglican premises.