We are currently doing a series on Christianity in Action and today I had Andy from the Salmon Youth Centre with me to talk to the children about Salmon as a living breathing local example of Christianity in action.
Quite a few of the older children are already linked in with Salmon - about a third of them at Alexis Street raised a hand to say they belonged to a Salmon club, and I think quite a few more might be about to join after this morning.
From there I had two meetings with fellow ministers: with Charlie at St Mary's, talking about some of the things we do together as a Group, and then with Carl at Haddon Hall Baptist Church. I meet with Charlie every week for our Group morning prayer but it was my first visit to Haddon Hall and it was fascinating to hear of their plans to develop 'missional communities' - small groups worshipping and fellowshipping together with a definite mission focus. It will be really interesting to see how that works out.
My last deanery, Reigate, with 29 churches was the largest in the diocese, whilst Bermondsey, with just seven parishes is one of the smallest, and has the advantage of being a more manageable size, and probably enabling closer and more meaningful inter-church relationships.
Our main topic tonight was a presentation by the staff of Bacon's College (the CofE academy in Rotherhithe), particularly focussing on the Christian character of the school.
Nearly 60 per cent of the children have free school dinners and a very large number speak English as a second language, but the school is achieving impressive academic results, whilst continuing to emphasise its Christian heritage. Like, many such schools, their greatest problem is one of success, with the school heavilly oversubscribed and many applicants disappointed.
With such a rapidly growing population it may just be that Bermondsey and Rotherhithe needs more schools, and with the popularity of church schools, perhaps even a new CofE school at our end of Bermondsey?
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