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Organ Appeal At St Giles we hear sounds from the organ that our predecessors, including Byron, Shelley and John Soane, have heard for more than three hundred years. This historic organ urgently needed sympathetic restoration more>

The beginning of a new decade reminds us of the inexorable march of time. While the divisions by which we calculate time may differ, Judaism and Islam, for example enumerate years in a different way to the Christian west, and begin their years on different days, they and other cultures and faiths, thus illustrating the relativity of our measurement of time. However, time itself has a reality. Whenever a year may begin, it is clear that night succeeds day, and that there is a cycle of seasons, indicated not least by the weather. The reality of time is also brought home to us by our own lives: children grow up, difficult adolescents, all being well, become responsible citizens, and, unlikely though it may seem, we grow old, as inexorably as night succeeds day. The march of time brings about undeniable change, even in ourselves. It is undeniable, and is best embraced positively. Despite the attractions of nostalgia, living in a time capsule, denies the reality of the dynamic change of the God-made world which we inhabit, and into which, as we have been celebrating at Christmas, God has entered.

A new decade, a new year, a new season, allows us to change, if only to acquire new clothes, to represent ourselves, or to adapt to changed circumstance, often brought on by the march of time. It may allow us to make resolutions, in the light of reviewing our past selves that may bring about changes in ourselves, and in our relations with other people, and perhaps with God. Time may inexorably march on, but that should not discourage us from attempting to grasp the opportunities it presents to make things new – not just new clothes, or a new kitchen or bathroom, but of renewing ourselves as citizens of God’s kingdom here on earth. The dark days after Christmas and into the New Year, often filled with memories of happy, and sad times, may be a time not just to think of holidays, or planting a garden for the summer, but of how to get a grip on our lives, and of looking for opportunities for interacting even more creatively with other people, and with God.

An opportunity for us corporately at St Giles to engage with change will present itself in the course of 2010. In the spring, the new Central St Giles building opposite the church in St Giles High Street will open. Whatever one may think of the design, it is certainly distinctive, and, as the Evening Standard recently noted, in its use of colour it is unique in London, and perhaps the world.

The Standard unkindly, but not inaccurately, described St Giles as ‘a strange dead zone just off New Oxford Street, in the lee of Centre Point’, a grey area. Suddenly we are going to be in the lee of a world class landmark building, which I think may grow on us, which has been cunningly designed to give the impression of great space at ground level, and to disguise its great bulk at higher levels. All being well, this building will bring the greatest transformation to St Giles High Street since the shops and houses along the north side were demolished and replaced by the truly dreadful old St Giles Court building, and Centre Point. Far more people will be living and working in and visiting the cafes. Bars, restaurants and shops, than St Giles has known for many years. This will present us with a challenging opportunity, not to turn in on ourselves, and ignore what has happened on the other side of the street, but to represent ourselves in relation to what is happening there, as witnesses to God’s loving and saving presence in his world. We have a challenging year ahead of us, to which, with God’s grace, we will rise.

 FRIENDS LECTURE 2010

The 2010 Friends of St Giles Lecture will be on Thursday 18 February 2010 at 7pm. It will be given by Professor Donald Lewis, on Mission to the Rookeries of St Giles. Professor Lewis teaches at Regent’s College Vancouver, and is currently editing for publication the manuscript working diary of a London City Missioner who worked, under the direction of the then Rector, Anthony Thorold in St Giles Rookeries, on the site of the new Central St Giles building.

Bill Jacob.

Special Collections

On Sunday, 6th December 2009 £402.46 was raised for Prostate UK, which brings the total for the year to £2,201.47. We also raised £455.39 at our Carol Services, for the S Mungo’s Charity, which works with homeless people in London. On Sunday, 3rd January 2010, the collections at all services will be for the Passage, a London based homeless charity, which we will be supporting for six monthly collections throughout the year.

www.passage.org.uk

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