St Christopher-le-Stocks

The Bank of England, the so-called Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, in the City of London, has grown to occupy the site of what was once a church: St Christopher-le-Stocks. It existed since before 1282, was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London in 1666, but finally deconsecrated and demolished in the 1780s as the Old Lady’s growing girth required additional curtilage. It seems strange, perhaps, that the nation’s preeminent financial institution should occupy land once dedicated to the service of God. Mammon is at odds with godliness, and yet the Bible speaks much of managing wealth in an ethical and spiritual way. We are not called to give all away indiscriminately, and neither must we be hoarders of something we cannot keep. Our wealth, like our bodies and our time, is to be consecrated for God’s use. The adage that money makes a poor master but a good servant is but half the truth; realising that it is the Lord’s servant adds a whole new dimension to what we do with it.

A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease. Ecclesiastes 6:2

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