18th November 2011
While I was on placement in Manchester in September I was struck by an image. Manchester had, just a few weeks before, witnessed rioting in its streets in response to riots in other parts of the country. In a large percentage of the shops and business windows around the city were posters with a large red heart and the word Manchester underneath. The message being “I Love Manchester”. This seemed in stark contrast to the destructive message of the riots. When I started on placement in North Road I had a sense that this was an “unloved” part of Durham City. The pride is in the other side of the bridge with its fancy shops and nice buildings. North Road, at first glance, is predominantly charity shops, gold and cheque exchange centres and bars with some of the buildings themselves looking a little worse for wear. As Paul and I walked along North Road on Friday we noticed a neon sign which had been put up to coincide with the Lumiere festival which states “CAPITALISM KILLS LOVE”. Paul and I had already decided that “Love North Road” was going to be the tag-line of our placement and this seemed even more important in response to this neon sign. Here we were on a retail-dominated street which ironically was responding to the needs of people struggling in a recession prompted by the greeds of capitalism. Part of our placement is to help the local churches to discern how they might be Christ in this area and engage with what God is already doing. The Bible talks about loving your neighbour, how can churches be agents of Christ's love in that neighbourhood? How can they "Love North Road"?
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