Christianity is about our relationship to God and how that affects our relationship to others. The church, as a body of believers, is therefore concerned primarily about how we relate to God first and how we reach out and relate to the world around us. The church as a building is a place where this interaction is most obviously seen to happen. In Old Testament times the tabernacle was the dwelling place of God, where God came and lived with His people. The church building now is different since God no longer dwells in a building but in people, but the building is symbolic of God living in the people who come to the building.

The church in the city both interacts and sets itself out from the city. It is a building within the city but also an object relating to God who is set up above the city. There is a cyclical process therefore in which God the city and man relate to one another.

• God is firstly seen to step down and relate to man. In Christianity, God, came to earth as a man and therefore came down to relate to us on our level.
• Man then reaches out to the city. Christians are called to ‘go out into the world’. There is a need to reach out to the city and not become insulated within itself.
• The city then draws towards the river. The river as an entity is generally ignored within the city so the waterfront is opened up to draw people towards it and make it accessible. Also drawing people towards water is important symbolically in Christianity, with baptism being the public sign that a person is a Christian.
• The river then reaches up to God. The movement within the water is representative of the movement and work of God in nature and in the world. The cyclical process of the water cycle also demonstrates this actively in the world, showing how God is evident through nature.

This process therefore ebbs and flows with the reaching out and drawing in and stepping up and down all describing a series of movements and processes which form part of what Christianity and the church is today. In these movements there is a very clear differentiation with the horizontal representing man and the world and the vertical representing God