Of The Spire
If you have looked skywards then you will have noticed that on church hill there are two very serious-sized spires. There they stand, soaring, almost rocketing their way towards the stratosphere.
One of them belongs to our brothers and sisters of the Presbyterian faith and the other belongs to the Anglicans and it is the Anglican one that I am the most qualified to speak.
The Anglican Church that sits beneath the spire is a building for all people in our community and is open every day for visitors to come and admire the Church and/or spend some time in quiet reflection. The ministry of significant life events continues for any one who seeks consolation and celebration in their life. One of the hardest COVID things I had to do was to lock the Church doors. It felt like I had killed my mother and in a spiritual sense, to shut off the place of nurture and welcome from the community, was a type of annihilation.
The Church Spire that folk see is a significant symbol and sentinel for all to see and like all historical buildings is in constant need of maintenance.
It is also striking because it points us beyond the day-to-day grist of our daily life. There is something more than what we see at ground level. The spire reminds us to look outside ourselves. We are not the centre of the universe no matter how seductive that line of logic might be.
Our church spire inspires folk and it is a reminder that we aspire to be great and to view things from the ‘above perspective’. Not to get lost in the confusing forest of the big/little insignificant things. Spires are not just grandiose monuments. By their silence, they have much to teach us.