Book review: Faith in the City of London

My Beloved Wife – https://northernreader.wordpress.com/ – does the book reviews. Unicorn Publishing – www.unicornpublishing.org – were kind enough to send her some books, and this one is right up my street. “Faith in the City of London“, Niki Gorick, Unicorn Publishing, 2020 – ISBN 978-1-912690-73-2.

I worked in the City between 1984 and 1987 as the librarian for Bischoff & Co, a solicitors’ firm on Chiswell Street (round the back of the Barbican) – which is why I have given you the ISBN of this book. Sometimes I used to go to lunchtime services, often at Wesley’s Chapel or at St Lawrence Jewry. I should have gone more often and I should have explored more widely. More recently I have attended worship at All Hallows by the Tower (a memorial service for a previous churchwarden there who then retired to Bury St Edmunds – we had after service drinkies at Trinity House, the headquarters of the lighthouse people (a place well worth a visit), and in St Paul’s Cathedral. (I will never forget a lunchtime communion there. It was a bit like saying your prayers in St Pancras station, but when they invited us to say the Lord’s Prayer in our own language and so many voices prayed around me in so many tongues, it felt like the day of Pentecost).

I have also visited several City Churches simply to explore – if you search “London” in the side bar of this blog you will find a dozen churches, so that’s about a quarter of them. I had plans to do more, indeed I had often thought that spending a few weeks in London after retirement to visit all the churches, museums, and all those things I would like to do, would be a huge pleasure – my health has other ideas. Ah well! Let’s enjoy this book.

150 pages of stunning photos. Not photos of the architecture, the curiousities, the things I photo, but photos of churches at work and people in them. It is mainly Anglican churches – there are a few photos of the Sikhs meeting at St Etheldreda and the Muslims at prayer in the banqueting room of a City Livery Company – but the overwhelming impression is of White Anglicans at worship. Some of the breadth of the Church of England is captured, but there are a lot of vestments on view.

The photos really are stunning. Niki is obviously a very talented photographer – her website – www.nikigorick.com – is superb. Highly recommended, and I will just have to have some virtual London visits. For this book she took her time getting to know the churches, the clergy and the people – and she has captured wonderful images of worship, prayer, and all the other aspects of church life. I would be very surprised if the church folk who are photographed are not very pleased with the positive way in which they have been portrayed – good too to have the names of the clergy and details of the jobs they do. A few more photos of vergers, cleaners and the other people who keep these churches alive would have been nice.

I love the wedding photo from All Hallows by the Tower, the violinists in St Giles Cripplegate (page 130), and the Roman soldier in the crypt at All Hallows (page 138). I would have liked a few more photos of the churches in context – unless you know the City you don’t really visualise the medieval or Wren churches standing cheek by jowl with the tower blocks next door. A minor quibble!

Nice to have a foreword from the Lord Mayor, he knows how important these churches are. Niki’s preface is fascinating, as is the Introduction by Edward Lucie-Smith. I assume he is the “Jamaican-born English writer, poet, art critic, curator and broadcaster” on wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Lucie-Smith – but I don’t know that for certain. He links the history with modernity and social change, and has written a very thoughtful article. “In religions, as well as in purely financial terms, the ancient City of London is still very much what it has always been throughout its existence – a place where things begin” (page 13).

It would be fascinating to be able to have a 2023 update – how did Covid affect these churches, is the City still full of office workers using their church buildings? Reading the “Church Times” – something I will give up now I have retired – you get the image that the Diocese of London is at war with itself, but I have been in the CofE for long enough to know that the work gets done, and (most importantly) the worship gets offered, day in and day out, whatever the state of church politics.

It is worth noting that the website of the Friends of the City Churches – https://www.london-city-churches.org.uk/ – gives lots of information. Services, events, regular opening times – start here. (It is mentioned on the last page of the book, could have done with more prominance). www.cityoflondonguides.com is also worth a look.

A beautiful and thought-provoking book. Thank you for the opportunity to review it.

Finally a photo (photographer unknown) from facebook which made me smile – and has a London connection. My kind of Bond film!