Bells and Buchanan Street

Had an interesting experience - I was walking down Buchanan Street towards Central Station at lunchtime and the Tron church bell was ringing. It really struck me as quite unusual - you don't really hear church bells that often, particularly in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day and it rang for quite a while. I thought my reaction was interesting. I became aware of the church, and the sound caused me to look up - up to the bell tower and beyond that, up to the sky. And it made me think - I was conscious of this sound breaking into the day and into the consciousness of hundreds of shoppers and business people as they walked through Glasgow. When the bell stopped everything returned to normal - the noise returned and the momentary sense of being aware of something different and unusual, passed.

It really stayed with me - there was something about it. To take a moment to look up and recognise a reality outside of yourself and the everyday. To become aware of a church and all that that might signify of God, of something transcendent. I know that seems a lot to get from just a bell ringing but it reminded me that the church can create something different, change the usual atmosphere and cause people to look outside of themselves and become aware of the sky, of some higher reality. Maybe it was just a tiny bit prophetic.