Deeper shade of grey | emerging

Sewers as object lessons | Gordon Cotterill

There are perks and draw backs to living in a city whose infrastructure is largely Victorian!

Anyone who has lived in London during the last four to five years will have experienced transition. This transition is from an older way that had lost its efficiency, to a new way that is recapturing an efficiency of old.

This transition has been messy and inconvenient. It has had to be well planned and articulated. It started when the problems were realistically acknowledged but seen as not being insurmountable. The old Victorian water pipe work that had become corroded, broken and in a general state of increasing decay, while still achieving its aim, could not be ignored. It leaked, it didn’t achieve what it was meant to achieve, haemorrhaging gallons of water a minute.

A huge engineering task has stopped and slowed traffic all over London as areas particularly affected are addressed. Huge holes have appeared in most parts of the city as engineers work to bring back ‘watertight’ efficiency to the distribution of water throughout the city. A 1,000 miles of pipeline by 2010!

Of particular interest is that the old pipe work is not obsolete, it may not function in the same way but its role is essential within the transition. Huge reels of plastic piping announce that the end of inconvenience is near as they are fed - I am told in some cases - through the older pipes. The older pipes guide and act as a conduit to the new. The pipes look different but the water tastes the same.

That which likes to see itself as emerging would do well not to lose that which it calls institutional and, that which likes to see itself as institutional would do well not to lose that which it calls emerging!

Writer: Capt. Gordon Cotterill lives in London, England, is married to Kate and has two daughters Bethan and Eryn. He has been a Salvation Army officer for ten years and ‘cut his teeth’ in ministry with his wife as the corps officers at Poplar in the East End of London. The lessons he learned there in his day-to-day ministry, amid the chaos of the inner city, continue to shape his understanding and passion for biblical and grace-centred mission. His latest appointment as Spiritual Programme Director at the William Booth College, London now offers him the opportunity for the fusion and exploration of ‘mission’ and ’spiritual formation’ while trying to inspire a new generation of Salvation Army officers as to their role in God’s plan for His creation. Gordon keeps a blog where he mulls over themes of mostly, mission and spiritual formation.

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