Christ Church, Isle of Dogs

It was not a planned call. I was catching the bus between Poplar and the Greenwich foot tunnel when I espied Christ Church from the top deck, and hastily hit the bell to go and see. Its address of ‘Manchester Road, Isle of Dogs’ seemed a little incongruous, and I was pleased to see it was left open. Its kindly vicar was working in his study and seemed pleased to welcome a visitor, enquiring where I was from. He was familiar with the great cotton town which supplied his church's address.

The style of worship here was evidently too ‘high’ for my latent puritanism, and the number of chairs left out belied a large congregation. Nevertheless, it was tastefully decorated and a pleasant contrast with the ultra-modern skyscrapers of nearby Canary Wharf.

The name 'Isle of Dogs' is a curious one, with numerous theories of explanation presented over the years. The most convincing ones include either Kings Edward III or Henry VIII using the peninsula (or possibly island) as a place where their hunting dogs might be conveniently housed without their incessant howls disturbing the royal palace’s gentler ears.  

‘Dogs’ usually get a bad press in scripture. Although they conveniently gobble the flesh and lap the blood of wicked Queen Jezebel in 2 Kings 9:36, the prophetic psalmist uses the word to describe the soldiers who would slay the Messiah (22:16), bespeaking their violence and thirst for blood. Dogs, like swine, are not fit for anything holy in Matthew 7:6, while they describe false teachers in Philippians 3:2, and unbelievers in Revelation 22:15, excluded from New Jerusalem for ever.

All churches are located in isles of dogs, for many of the folk around are indifferent and increasingly hostile to the gospel of Christ, living for nothing more than food and sex. Yet even dogs are afforded a glimmer of hope in the biblical record. In Mark 7:27-29, we read:

But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.

And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.

There is hope in this life even for 'dogs'. So stop chasing after bones, cease returning to your vomit, and submit to His collar and be tamed, laying at His feet, contentedly. He makes a fine Master, and a faithful Friend.