Know Thy Community

Categories: community

Date: 23 April 2009 15:02:14

A huge amount of the work I'm currently doing is related to the communities of which we're a part.  Living in an intentional community, my fellow residents and I form one community.  The Mrs and I another.  The church represents a whole series of differing communities, and centre (building) yet more.  But around all of these things is a very sizeable 'community' waiting to be explored - the city centre (and within that there are many, many more individual communities).

The problem is that there is no definition or obvious boundary for the city centre, and this has been affecting me since moving to do this job as I am challenged to respond to the needs found within it.  I set myself the challenge to map the Christian contacts within the city centre, but postcode areas was not sufficient help.  The Inner ring road left the area too small, and the question was whether the middle ring road (and inner circle bus route) was too far out.  In the end, the middle ring road was used for guidance but where churches fell into other 'churches together' groups they were omitted from the list.

I point this out not so much because it, in it's own right, is interesting but it led me to have an interesting Tuesday.  I decided that to complete the project, I wanted a photograph of each of the places on my list and so I set off... on foot and carrying my local preacher studies in one hand but not having brought my A to Z.  I don't think I'd entirely thought this through beforehand.

Despite looking something of a picture with a big blue folder in one hand, I started walking.  In the back of my mind I knew my trusty bus pass would be some help and I could travel that way to some of the places.

The walk was really interesting as it gave me the opportunity not only to see where places were, but also to realise that they weren't far from one another.  Having set of with the aim of using the bus, a quick check of the map on my ipod at lunch time reassured me it would be far simpler to walk to the next destination, and the next, and so on rather than walk to the bus stop.

In the course of my travels I found that it was highly interesting to not only see what was going on but also to listen for it.  I opted for a music-less walk, and found to my great surprise almost complete silence behind the National Indoor Arena.  This was greatly contrasted with an area I'd found myself in only 5 minutes before.  Despite going through areas of great deprivation, the worst affected area was lost in the unseen bits of the Jewellery Quarter, not too far from the rather stunning Orthodox Cathedral.  There were also signs of great wealth and very expensive city-centre accommodation blocks as well as signs of the industrial heritage - much of the walk was around the canals.  Signs of the recession were as present as those of hopes for the future.  The signs of companionship and isolation associated with city life were there too.  At some points on the walk, I was the only person around yet at others I was having to fight my way through bustling crowds or walk between gridlocked cars.

The distribution of churches and other christian organisations was also rather strange - it was not related to the number of residences near by and sometimes it was a long walk between them, yet at another point there were about 4 in the space of 5 buildings on the same stretch of road.  The most remote of the churches I reached was in the middle of an industrial estate, and walk back towards the next point I found the most amazing piece of grafitti I've seen in Birmingham (picture to follow).

Another interesting consideration from the walk was the balance of types of churches and organisations.  Sadly both the Welsh congregations seem to have vacated their premises but other newer, international churches have moved in.  A couple of the newer buildings represent churches with many hundreds of years of history, who for various reasons have moved, while their buildings are now used by newer churches.  And then, like the church in the industrial estate, there are those hidden in the depths of anonymous buildings where you have to know they're there.  Just occasionally, there is a hidden gem - a church or organisation whose service has been long standing yet almost unseen.  With no presence in internet listings, directories or acknowledgment from the ecumenical bodies they quietly and patiently continue their work.

I foudn the whole experience really worth while and not a bad way to spend an afternoon.  All I need to do now is use the photos for something and see where that takes me.  I certainly think I know the city centre a little better than I did.

The route may have looked a little (but not entirely) like this:

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