Ritual is almost always connected automatically with religion but I wonder if, as Suzanne Moore of The Guardian newspaper in the UK is onto something when she suggests that all people need the solidity, the security and rhythm that ritual provides.
If she is then what kind of rituals characterize the life of the city? What rhythms provide structure and meaning in a fluid and ever changing city? Where do we find our fixed points?
The structured space we share in the city is the crucible within which we create meaning but where do we find the space to breathe and reflect? Where might we find the ‘city of spirit’ to which the urban theorist Leonie Sandercock refers in her 1998 book ‘Towards Cosmopolis’?
In family, in community, in politics, in work, at the football, the club, the office, the ‘Boxing Day Sales’, the neighborhood meeting?
Chris Shannahan - Finding Faith in an Urban World 