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Good Morning If you could re-design your local town, where would you start? My parish is part of Welwyn Garden City. It was purpose-built in response to the poverty and slums after the First World War. The vision of the Garden City movement was all about healthy living. You were meant to enjoy the place where you lived and worked. But, a hundred years on, the garden city, like so many spaces, is having to reimagine itself. It’s still a great place to live but the main shopping centre for example, is a shadow of what it was, only 5 years ago. It's a mixed picture across towns and cities, but the experience for many people is of urban centres devoid of life and vitality. The question we must ask is: what makes a town or city centre a place that is worth spending time in? The Bishop of Worcester, John Inge, has drawn attention to the special nature of place. He wrote how the books of the bible are full of places of spiritual significance – villages, cities, towns, mountains, where momentous life-changing events happened. So synonymous are these places with those who lived and what took place there, that many are now visited as holy places of pilgrimage. They inspired faith in God, for sure, but also friendship and companionship for those who share a love of the place. Just being together! So a true sense of place is not merely a geographical location. It’s where memorable things happen. It’s where relationships are formed and fashioned. But in order for any community to flourish, members need to feel that they have a stake in its future. We all need a sense of agency to have the motivation to make changes for the better. Whilst much of Jesus’ teaching focuses on how we are to behave towards each another in our communities, he is also clear that real and actual involvement is necessary to bring about transformation. Throughout the gospels Jesus is saying – get stuck in and make a difference - and the regular commissioning of people to “go” and “do” represents a culture of empowerment. Ensuring that local people both have a say and are empowered to be part of designing the future of their communities surely has to be a priority. The pandemic revealed many places where community spirit is thriving even if local amenities are not. If I could re-design where I live, a spirit which recognises the unique importance of place and the inclusion of the hopes of others would certainly be the foundation stone.