Kingdom

Kingdom One

 

I’ll tell you what I see when I drive down Morongo Hill past the former Anglican Girl’s School Morongo which is now Kardinia International College.

I see six churches down the hill on the flat. Four with domes, three with onion domes, one with little gold ones. One with two tall white brick towers. Another church near the lights is a new style concrete slab, dark grey building that never catches my eye. Serbian, Greek, Orthodox, emergent, whatever, six churches within a kilometer.

I see St Marys bluestone spires high on the horizon over in Geelong.

If I drive through the next set of lights, past the Lutheran church, past where the Kingdom Hall used to be, then turn to the right I travel along one of Geelong’s main arterial roads, Shannon Ave. Down in Geelong West on a busy corner are the abandoned Anglican church buildings opposite the Baptist church between baby boomer streets and the old cottage streets of Geelong West. Abandoned tennis courts, a quiet bell in a silent tower. If I had turned to the left instead I would have eventually reached the Pentecostal church in Norlane.

These are just a few of the churches around Geelong. On the way to work I walk past the Salvation Army and around the corner is their Social Housing Service. They have contracts for housing and other services, as well as their charitable works, and give food and emergency relief to the needy. The Uniting church is also active in emergency relief.

 

Twenty kilometers away my church’s big backyard is empty. I would like to hear a church bell here. There could be shelter for refugees if the need arises and if the rains don’t fail. There are four other small churches in this small town, Presbyterian, Roman and two emergent churches using public buildings. Other people travel to churches in Geelong or elsewhere.

 

 

An orthodox priest wrote to me that the church is the eschatological realisation of the Kingdom.

 

 

Which of these churches is the realisation of the Kingdom?

 

© 2007 Epiphanist

 

 

 

 

I didn’t take these pictures, and they are not pictures of the churches I have written about. I hope no one minds.

 

 

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