St Dunstan-in-the-East

St Dunstan-in-the-East is an impressive medieval church building with a Christopher Wren tower added during that famous rebuilding spree after London’s Great Fire of 1666. Sadly, it succumbed to that other great opponent of our capital’s best architecture, the Blitz of 1941. The post-war diocese of London decided not to rebuild it, and by the 1970s, its grounds had become a rather pleasant public park, the windows still without panes, the walls in a semi ruinous state.

So it looks like a church, it is even described as a church, but it is not a church. It is a collection of broken walls and roofless spaces; it is a tower and a doorway. Here, no-one comes to worship, the Bible is not read, much less preached, the gospel is not proclaimed and the Lord’s Supper not shared. For this reason, it is no church, even while it is peaceful, and attractive, and all ecclesiastical and historical-looking.

Sometimes, actual churches are all the things described in the last sentence, but do few of the things mentioned in the one before. Such a place might even have a roof and glazed windows, but is it a real church?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:23