The Word of the Month for October is CITY

Discussion starter: What makes a good city? 

A good city is a place in which people live and work together in such a way that they know and appreciate one another, serve each other’s needs, and enable each other to fulfil their potential. Such a city and its members will experience physical, mental, and spiritual health; will benefit the work, leisure, family and other communities to which its members belong; and will experience and value both unity and diversity. 

Take, for instance, the issue of wealth and poverty. There will always be differences between incomes and between the levels of assets that people experience; but if the inequalities become too wide then a sense of unity is difficult to maintain. So whilst some of the restaurants in the City of London will always be out of some people’s financial reach, the provision of frequent and high-quality arts, cultural, and culinary experiences accessible to everyone, whatever their level of income, is vital. The Wrenathon last year—a Saturday during which anyone could wander around the City’s churches and hear excellent choirs singing in them—was an excellent example; and simply being able to wander into so many architecturally superb buildings, and to be welcomed by Friends of the City Churches churchwatchers, is an experience open to everyone without anyone having to pay for it.

It is of course understandable that housing will be expensive in the City of London. This unfortunately means that many of the people who work in the City—in hospitality, cleaning, and retail, in local government, and in the health, education and police services—will never be able to live here. If ever it becomes possible to build new genuinely affordable residential accommodation in or close to the City would enhance the diversity of its population. 

Physical space in which people can meet to develop networks and to carry out projects and activities together is also an essential requirement in any city. Public space matters, and the greening of King William Street is an excellent example of how such space can be enhanced. There need to be more outdoor spaces where people can gather. Some of those spaces will be managed by cafes and restaurants and will have their tables and chairs on them, and some will be simply open spaces, and any spaces managed by restaurants and cafes must be subject to non-exclusive use so that anyone can still wander across them. 

Heritage buildings make a vital contribution to the City of London, and both those buildings and the outdoor spaces associated with them are one of the main reasons for companies leaving Canary Wharf and returning to the City. Those heritage buildings must be conserved, they must be open to workers and residents, and they must serve the needs of those residents and workers and of the institutions of the City. This requires a partnership approach, and particularly an understanding on the part of the City of London Corporation that heritage buildings are a vital social and economic contribution to the life of the City.

This is particularly true of the religious buildings of the City, most of which are grade I listed Christopher Wren buildings. The Bevis Marks Synagogue and the many Church of England parish and guild churches provide a unique spiritual component to the life of the City and must be valued for that reason as well as for their heritage value. Secular musical and other cultural events that take place in these buildings enhance the lives of residents and workers, so does the ability to enter, admire, and study the buildings themselves, and so does the ability to pray or contemplate in a religious space in which workers and residents have gathered for centuries for the same purpose. Particularly important in this respect are the many carol services and guild services that take place in these religious buildings.

An essential component of any city are the various layers of civic organisation, represented in the City by the Lord Mayor, aldermen, common councillors, and officers of the City Corporation, and by the ancient and not so ancient worshipful companies. All of these benefit from the built environment of the City, and all of them have a responsibility to maintain and enhance the whole of it: the modern and the ancient, the huge and the small, the secular and the religious, the indoors and the outdoors. 

One of the things that this means in practice is that outdoor spaces and heritage buildings must not be crowded by high-rise buildings. It is entirely right that the City of London should contain a variety of iconic high-rise office buildings. This is largely what the City is for: it is a financial centre serving global markets. But that essential aspect of the work of the City must not compromise other essential aspects, and in particular must not deprive heritage buildings of the space and light that they need. 

The City of London is a global financial district because it recognises that the UK’s adherence to democracy and the rule of law means that contracts made in the City will be honoured. This requires an extreme integrity on the part of companies and the individuals working for them and also on the part of the City Corporation. Transparency, honesty, accountability, responsibility, and many other similar characteristics will be required of both individuals and institutions. The religious institutions that work from the many religious buildings in the City have a role to play here, as do the worshipful companies, the City Corporation, and all of the companies working in the City. 

The City has the potential to make a huge contribution to our global future, in particular by its companies decarbonising themselves and working to remove fossil fuels from the global economy. This could be the significant legacy of the City, and its companies, worshipful companies, religious and other organisations, residents, workers, and transport operators, all have a part to play. A secondary contribution to our global future will be the City’s continuing adherence to democracy, the rule of law, accountability, transparency, and integrity. Here it could be even more of a world leader than it is.

The City of London is the archetypal city, and it could be the best ever city: and, if it were, then other cities would have so much to learn from it.

From the Oxford English Dictionary

city: noun. 

• a municipality traditionally or officially designated a city, being larger in size or population, or having greater status, than a town. … In the United Kingdom city status is granted by the monarch and has traditionally been associated with cathedral towns, although many newly-created cities since the late 19th cent. have lacked. London is an anomaly: it contains two officially designated cities, the City of London (see below) and the City of Westminster, but ‘city’ is also used more generally to denote the entire urban area of Greater London. …
• In religious language: heaven or paradise, portrayed as a city in which God, his angels, and the beatified reside. Frequently in celestial city, heavenly city, etc.
• The City of London, the small historic central part of London situated within its ancient boundaries and under the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor and the City of London Corporation, having official city status in its own right. …
• The business part or community of this district, traditionally situated in the neighbourhood of the Royal Exchange and Bank of England and regarded as London's financial centre. In later use also more generally: the financial or business sectors of London.                                                                             

From the New Testament

In Matthew’s Gospel we find Jesus grieving over the state of Jerusalem:

‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! [1]

And then, near to the end of the last book in the New Testament, the Revelation, the visionary sees a new city

coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples, 
and God himself will be with them; 
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’ …

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. [2]

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
 

[1] Matthew 23:37

[2] Revelation 21:1-4; 22:1,2