God is present in the city, in the pains and joys of its people, in the sense of community and in exclusion. Christians are called to bear witness to that presence of God, to point to signs of that presence and celebrate it through faithfulness within the city, in worship and in festival.

Church buildings are present in the city centre to be visible signs of the Gospel. So our churches are confronted with the question: what visible signs do our buildings offer in the city centre? Are they signs of beauty, renewal, openness and hope or of urban ugliness, exclusive community and despair?

Christian communities are also present in the city centre as visible signs. They too have a vocation to openness, to diversity and inclusiveness, to love and care and judgement. Do they exist only to serve those who share in their worship or do they also seek to be signs of the Gospel to those who surround their buildings?

The church is called to critical engagement with the Institutions which are at the heart of the city centre. These institutions represent governance, power, decision—making the dissemination of wealth, the promotion of commerce and the forces of the market. The church in the centre cannot ignore the institutional life around it. We are challenged to be involved.

The people of God are not built up ‘for their work of ministry’ in isolation from the people and forces around them. The task of nurturing the church cannot be done effectively in a vacuum. God’s Spirit brings resources of word and sacrament, reflection and worship into a continuing dialogue with persons, organisations and institutions. It is a risky enterprise, for the church cannot know what God will make of it. But the struggle can be a real mark of the church.

Communities and institutions in the city centre can also be voices of God’s judgement. Our engagement in the city centre may therefore call our churches to repentance, to a recognition of our disobedience, our unfaithfulness to God’s covenant and our failure in being communities of openness and justice. God will use whom God will to be instruments of God’s purpose.

The church in the city centre must recognize itself as being within the world-wide church of God. The city seeks to be a city of the world. The wider vision of global responsibility can enable the church to know itself more fully as ‘the one holy, catholic and apostolic church’. Thus ‘shall all be included in the feast of life’.

And so the worship of the church in the city centre will articulates the faith and love, the yearning and hopes, not only of the Christian community, but of all those who live out their lives within the city.

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