When does a "church" cease to be a church?

It is ages since I have written my blog - for which I must apologise. I kept meaning to, but I had a list entitled "Things to do before going to Egypt" and it kept me completely occupied. Then I went to Cairo, Sinai, Aqaba, Madaba, the Jordan, Galilee, Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem, and I am still processing the hundreds of photographs that I took on my travels.

My question doesn't concern redundant churches or those that no longer hold services but one that continues to advertise itself as a church, and not as a community centre, but which seems to have given up being in anyway a sacred space. I live right next to it and my thoughts were triggered by a posting on a community website. It explained that after a very enjoyable Scottish dancing evening, it was now proposed to have ballroom dancing on a Friday early evening because "the church is such an excellent space for dancing".

Then I opened the latest residents' magazine which announced that Vocality, a Surrey-based singing organisation, is bringing its expertise to the City and forming a new choir. A free taster workshop was announced for a Thursday lunchtime. The church is clearly an excellent space for singing everying from gospel to pop, slave songs to folk songs, jazz to world music (I quote the announcement). It will be run by Vocality Singing which is a business and a limited company; there are fees to pay to sing and terms and conditions.

The residents' magazine had a whole page devoted to events at the next door church in June and July: a Friends of City Churches walk, a concert by the Apollo Orchestra in conjunction with the Barbican Library, an organ recital, a City of London Festival event, a chamber choir prmoting 21st century sacred music, another chamber choir, the Guildhall School of Music New Music festival, a BBC Singers concert and, indeed, a couple more concerts. Other advertisements around the place point to a book fair in the church and I voted there in the European elections when it was a polling station.

But where is Christianity in all this? There is no mention of the Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, St John the Baptist or St Peter & St Paul. The Church's website does list services - Morning Prayer said Monday to Thursday, two Eucharists on Sunday, a once-a-month Family Service, and said Evening prayer on Sunday afternoon. Rather a small religious offering compared to the concerts, the organ school, the dancing, the choirs, the book fair, the rehearsals.

The mission statement says, among other things, we will "remind the community of the church in their midst by ringing the bells". But to what end? Not to call to prayer. The website declares it to be "a quiet place" but it seems to have become a place of incessant noise and activity, and it is available for hire, daytime or evening, seven days a week!

By now you are probably thinking that this is Dudley sounding off about a church he doesn't like. Actually I do quite like it; it is a reasonable post-war rebuild of a late medieval church and in sunshine it looks splendid. Well, it would look splendid if it wasn't for an altar on wheels, mobile stalls, a surfeit of organs, a semi-permanent book fair in one aisle, and a general sense of clutter. It has become a hall for hire. If it ever had the sense of being a holy place, it has it no more. Perhaps that was inevitable. It once had a busy street passing its door but post-war redevelopment has left it stranded. Perhaps all these activities are necessary to get people through the door at all, but I have yet to be persuaded that concerts, even of religious music, do anything to promote the mission of the Church. And if you think that is just me sounding off there's nothing I can do about it.

Have a look for yourself: www.stgilescripplegate.org.uk