Worshippers attending Mass at Brentwood Cathedral in Essex had a rude experience when a large block of ice fell through the roof during the Eucharistic Prayer. Fr James Mackay told BBC Essex: “Last Sunday just gone, I was celebrating Mass and halfway through there was a massive explosion to the west side of the cathedral. Everything was stopped as we heard this. I turned to my left to see lots of slate and white stuff falling from the roof. After a couple of seconds of shocked pause, I said: ‘Right, let’s crack on.’ And we did.” Fr Mackay said: “It became clear later on that it was actually a block of frozen refuse that dropped from an aeroplane. We could see the damage – it fell straight through the slate... It was a bit of an adventure.” The hole in the roof was repaired the following day. Such incidents are rare because airplanes are not supposed to dump their waste mid-flight. It is not the first time frozen waste has smashed into a place of worship. A block of ice from an aircraft damaged Essex Church, a Unitarian chapel in west London, in 1971.