St Paul's Church, Shipley

I recently called at St Paul’s Church, Shipley. Its website lists the Priest in Charge (a job title I always thought rather awkward on a number of levels) as a gentleman with whom I used to teach. He now wears a clerical collar and I dress much as I did when in the classroom- a sober suit, shirt and tie.

St Paul’s in one of the Commissioners’ Churches, towards which the British Parliament voted a million pounds in the Church Building Act (1818) and the Church Building Act (1824) to construct more parish churches. Existing ones were often found in small villages rather than new, expanded industrial towns, and it was thought the a greater Church profile might curb any revolutionary zeal this side of the Channel which had shown such disastrous results on the other, and for which the recent Battle of Waterloo had been fought.

Built to a Decorated Gothic design in the 1820s, it is a dignified and stately church building. Old gravestones have been re-purposed to provide paving around the church and through the grounds. Although these are a little slippery when wet, it did seem a little unnerving to be treading on the commemorations of the dead.

In a broader sense, every Christian is walking upon and building upon the work of those who have gone before. We at Salem Chapel are enjoying shelter from the elements which a former generation built and paid for. Many of us read the Bible in English which owes much to Will Tyndale, a man who translated it from the Greek 499 years ago. We certainly inherit much from the past, and we should hope to leave a legacy to those who come after. This is no macabre or ghoulish thought: in Christ, all these shall rise again, for all generations shall eventually live as one. So let us build upon the work of those who went before, and provide foundations for those who come afterwards, that they might build higher still, and better.