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Daylighting

Cheonggyecheon stream in Seoul, South Korea, daylighted from sewers in 2003. Image: Kaizer Rangwala, Flickr.

Daylighting is an urban environmental movement which encourages city planners to uncover culverted rivers and discover the difference that properly managed waterways and green spaces can make to the wellbeing of those living and working in cities. The UK has been relatively late to this global trend, but it might have a special resonance in my home city, named after a long-buried river.
Steve Aisthorpe in his book "Rewilding the Church", which uses contemporary environmental strategies as prompts and metaphors for thinking about the future of  church increasingly post-Christian west, uses this movement to suggest a re-examination of the diverse historic spiritual streams as explored by Richard Foster in his book "Streams of Living Water." Not only is this a good idea, it got me thinking and writing again after a long "dry" period. That period may not be entirely in the past, but perhaps some "daylighting" in this and other ways, may be a way forward.

A long-forgotten river
Reduced to a reeking sewer,
Confined to a red brick culvert,
Like many other streams
And stories buried 
deep beneath our feet,
Adding nothing to our city
Save its name.

Let the daylight in.
Let life-giving waters
Flow free.

What other streams and springs
Are interred beneath 
Layer upon layer of tradition?
Lying, neglected, forgotten 
And yet feared, undermining
All that has subsequently 
Been built upon it
Unknowingly.

Let the daylight in.
Let life-giving waters
Flow free.

Selah

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