On a train ride to Manchester earlier in the year I saw a huge warehouse, probable built in the nineteenth century, that had a huge sign 'Railway Warehouse' built in white brick as part of the wall. Clearly the builders, architects and those who commissioned the building never anticipated that it may one day be used for a different purpose. The way the name was built into the wall was perhaps meant to symbolise permanence, however with its change of use now stood as a reminder that 'the times they are a changing.'
As I looked around Manchester City centre, with all its large, modern buildings, it was clear that today's builders had a different idea. A good example is the newly built Co-operative head office, a huge building with a tiny sign above the entrance to the reception area. Everything about the building is big, from its large reception area to the huge, open sight of all the offices from the inner atrium. However the sign outside could be changed by two workers with a couple of step ladders and two screw drivers. Slight exaggeration I know, but you get my point!
How do we guarantee permanence, is it possible. Is it right to even try? There is value in the consistency of some things; the beauty of a the view of Worms Head from high above Rhossili that can be enjoyed today more or less as it was one hundred years ago. The love between two octogenarians that remains the same over many decades. However there are other things that we are grateful of the change; who still wants to go to an outside loo in the middle of a cold winter's night? My trip to Manchester took four hours by train rather than three days by horse a hundred and fifty years ago
One of the challenges for the church today is to answer the question, 'what do we keep and what do we get rid of?' It is actually a question that each generation has had to consider in the light of their understanding of Scripture and the times in which they lived.
