Heaven in Bermondsey

Lindisfarne, according to tonight's Songs of Praise, is a place particularly close to heaven.

Undoubtedly, its a place of great natural beauty, and holy people have been drawn there over the years, but is it really any closer to heaven than Bermondsey?

The Beeb loves picturesque settings for its Sunday afternoon hymn singing and it rarely visits the inner city, (Cathedrals excepted), and lots of people say they feel closer to God in the country, by the sea, or up a mountain, so another mark down for the inner city yet....

The Bible starts in a garden but ends in a city.

Read to the end of the Scriptures and you find not am empty field but a bustling city of every tribe, language and nation.

Here at St James and St Anne's, we may not be drawn from every tribe, language and nation, but the wonderful mixture of people that gather for worship here, really is a little forestate of the life of the world to come.

In that sense, Bermondsey's closer to heaven than you might think.