Christ Church, Greyfriars

Christ Church Greyfriars was once a handsome church until Germanic bombs destroyed it on the night of 29 December, 1940. Only the stone tower and some external walls survived, and even they had to be reconstructed post-war. Rather than rebuild, it was decided to leave it as a melancholic memorial to those years of terror and destruction, for which it was rightly anticipated that a future generation of Londoner would not comprehend. Thanks to the deep pockets of its neighbours, notably American bank Merrill Lynch, the bombsite is now a pleasant, well-maintained little park, with the rose borders imitating the former floor-plan. It is a welcome relief from the City’s buzz.

Its pertinence and pleasantness notwithstanding, a ruined church is always a sore site for the eyes. Once, the Living God was there worshipped and praised, but not now. Formerly, His word was read and His gospel preached; now it hears only birdsong and the groans of red buses. Bombs account for this ruin, but other ruinations go unmarked. The Protestant church in France was all but extinguished by cruel Catholic kings; the Christians of Constantinople were enslaved, raped and murdered when the Ottomans captured that great city in 1453, transforming the great cathedral inside which they sheltered into a giant mosque; more recently, in Jaranwala, Pakistan, 26 Christian churches were burnt down on August 16th, 2023. All over the world, past and present, there are the broken and battered sites of churches, the smoking and charred remains of pulpits and lecterns. Truly, the world hates the gospel and the places where its adherents gather. Yet for two millennia of persecution, we are still here. The One who saves us from sin does not always save our buildings and homes from evil, but He shall not allow His witnesses to be totally silenced, at least not in all places at the same time.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. 2 Cor. 4:7-12