SEA CONTAINERS Ltd
The riverside has seen many changes. Marshes were succeeded by tiny houses, and by docks and wharves plied by lightermen like the one on page two. Then followed pallet and container carried trade. Most of the remaining houses and small businesses gave way to consortia and giant enterprises. Among these the sponsors of this window, Sea Containers came to the parish in the 1980s with related development. The change was typical of the riverside.
All windows reveal the marked increase in the scale of economic activity, when local unemployment is increasing steeply. National and international outreach is now monitored here. Global business infiltrates the locality. All who work or reside beside the river at Blackfriars are bound together - and yet have little in common in our varied experiences and responsibilities.
The placing of such a window in a parish church suggests a remnant of hope that through new symbols people may look again to a faith that makes us sensitively human in the midst of baffling complexity.
Look around for symbols. From Upper Ground to Lower Marsh, from Kings Reach along to Nelson Square, there are things on every hand reminding us of the responsibility we 'human instruments' bear for moulding the 'gifts of nature' into a socially exciting economy; giving space and creative opportunity to every one.
Trade is made efficient by use of containers: the human spirit must not be contained but nurtured to mature and shared responsibility.
