Changing Bermondsey

'Changing Bermondsey' was the theme of tonight's meeting of the Bermondsey Deanery Synod, hosted by St James, whose own setting with its newly remodelled churchyard at the end of a vista through the Bermondsey Spa development is a dramatic illustration of the rapid changes taking place across the deanery.

2,000 flats are nearing completion in Bermondsey Spa and planning permission has been given in the last few months for a further 700 flats at Chambers Wharf and 800 at the biscuit factory site. More flats are planned for the Southwark College site - and all this is in just one of the deanery's parishes, St James, so population growth was one of the issues flagged up tonight.

Other issues were increasing transience, high levels of social deprivation (several parishes, iucluding St James

and St Anne, are among the 10 per cent most deprived in the country), and reduced community facilities. The challenge for the church is to build community and to share the good news of the Gospel. Churches need to co-operate and new and imaginative forms of outreach need to be developed.

Huge challenges, yes, but we ended on a positive note. Everyone agreed that they actually liked living in Bermondsey.