‘We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.’
So said Winston Churchill defending the adversarial nature of the House of Commons debating chamber. The same could be said of our church buildings. They are monuments to the era in which they were built and reflect its values.
Take the Victorian chapel which has been home to Lansdowne Baptist, Bournemouth, for 138 years. No street-level windows giving so much as a hint to passers by of what’s going on inside. It was a building originally designed to be open only for one day a week. A small vestibule makes a comfortable welcome challenging. It leads to aisles too narrow for pushchairs, wheelchairs and buggies. A three-sided balcony is reached by way of a winding staircase. At the end of the service there is limited chance of a meaningful meeting with anyone below, in the melée to exit.