Westminster, Cairo & Thorburn Square

It's been a busy week during which Jos, our curate, has done his first funeral, flying solo, and his first solo school assemblies (and passed with flying colours), St James has been packed for the funeral of the beloved husband of a church member, and, in our Sunday series on Genesis, we've been thinking of what's gone wrong with the world, as a kind of prelude to Lent, Holy Week & Easter when we hear God's answer to our predicament.

In the middle of the week the Church of England's parliament, General Synod (right), met in Westminster, with a packed agenda which included a whole programme of reform and renewal for the national church, a stirring Presidential Address from the Archbishop of Canterbury on evangelism, a new user-friendly baptism service (much shorter, more to the point), a sensitive and moving debate about funerals for those who have taken their lives, and an address from the Archbishop of the Chaldean church in Iraq which ended with a heatfelt plea that the West does not stand by and watch the ending of the Christian presence in Iraq and Syria after 2000 years.

While all this has been going on, St Anne's and St James have been hearing news from Our Man in Cairo, actually Her Majesty's Ambassador, and St Anne's member, John Casson (left).

Just as we have been thinking about Fruitfulness on the Frontline, in our last Bermondsey Christian Training Course, its been to hear what John and Kat are up to their particular work in Egypt in their unique calling in the diplomatic service.

Meanwhile St Anne's Hall has had a facelift, courtesy of the contractors who are replacing the roofs of the flats on Thorburn Square. It's all part of the contractor's scheme to give something back to the communities in which they are working, and we are really grateful to them for the wonderful redecoration job they have done for St Anne's Hall, which now will be a much more attractive venue for community activities.

St Anne's