‘Stockport is the New Berlin'

I had occasion to call at Stockport this month. It is not a place with which I was previously familiar, but I enjoyed my visit and took many photographs, the subjects of which may provide some material for this modest blog. The city fathers are evidently keen to present the place as an attractive, vibrant alternative to Manchester: trendy and desirable, but without being a gigantic city. Various building sites had fencing boards about them, with photographs of smiling local residents offering their two-penneth about the exciting future of their locality. A bearded gent, attired in a baseball cap and over-sized, baggy jumper, is the presumed source of the accompanying quotation:

‘Stockport is the New Berlin’

I meditated on this, till I beheld a graffito written just below it. In general, the ‘graffiti artist’ is, in my humble opinion, a low life, who typically ruins public property with his deep-seated psychological need to possess a colouring book. Nevertheless, this particular fellow had me laughing out loud, for he knew his history and possessed a dry, subtle sense of humour. This is all he added:

c 1945

Berlin in 1945 was not, I think, what the brains behind the public advertising campaign had in mind, with its crumbling buildings, wrecked neighbourhoods, damaged roads and denizens of highly questionable morality.

Many churches and denominations model themselves on others of greater vintage. Many Anglicans looks to Rome, many Baptists to Geneva, many charismatics to Toronto and some nonconformists not very far from Salem Chapel, to Canterbury. Whatever they claim, some churches I can think of really resemble nothing more than dirty, idolatrous and power-hungry Babylon. May the Lord refine His church, conforming us to Zion.

Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion! Declare His deeds among the people. Psalm 9:11

By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down, yea, we wept
When we remembered Zion. Ps 137:1, NKJV