Unless the Lord builds the school

There was a bumper turn out for our second monthly prayer meeting for St James School with parents, governors, staff, and clergy all represented at our 9am meeting in Stewart Hartley House at Alexis St.

It was good to pray for the work of the school and for particular families facing challenging times.

We began with those well-known words from Ps 127, 'Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain,' reminding us that God's work has to be done in God's way, and that's where prayer comes in.

It's appropriate that the building in which we meet, the old school, house at Alexis St, is named after my predecessor as vicar of St James, because Stewart did so much to nurture the life of the school, and it was during his time that the old Alma School amalgamated with St James's School to creat our present, expanded, dual-site church school serving the community here in Bermondsey.