Joy in heaven and SE16

There was joy in heaven, I suggested in today's wedding sermon, as Tim and Sharon made their marriage vows to each other.

Joy in heaven? Because that was the way God planned it from the beginning: a man to leave his father and mother and to be united to his wife and become on flesh (Genesis 2.24).

That unique relationship is wonderfully encapsulated in the marriage vows Tim and Sharon made to each other today: to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health...

God bless you, Sharon and Tim, today and for the rest of your life together.

School visits

 Yesterday we welcomed the second of two classes from Riverside Primary School (left) to St James Church to see what goes on inside a church building.

Earlier one of the teachers had taken photos of different parts of the building, and the children had come primed with a host of questions, ranging from what does the lady in the office do? to why did Jesus die?

They loved climbing up into the organ loft.

They loved the bell ropes.

They also liked the Noah's Ark mural in the creche room, meeting the lady who works in the office, and handling the silver communion flagon.

They were an incredibly well-behaved, lively, and curious bunch - a credit to their school.

MEANWHILE at St James's School, history week was drawing to a close and I spent the morning with the two year 5 classes at Alexis St.

At the beginning of the week I had set them a task (by video): why was the school building built like it was in 1876?

Now the children were going to show me their presentations about the amazing story of E.R. Robson and Alexis St School (previously mentioned in this blog here) and I had to choose the best one in each class.

They had done some great work and the winning presentations will be shown to the whole school at assembly on Monday.

Some of the children had uncovered a new fact about the school's architect: he was offered a knighthood twice. Both times he declined.

His reason?

The architect of nearly 300 London schools (including our one) said he had done it for the children.

Bermondsey history week

As part of their special history week, five classes of Key Stage 1 children ('the infants', in old money) from St James's School have been visiting the church to find out about its history.

First up, they viewed the Communion Silver from 1829, given to the church when it was built in the days when Bermondsey was a country village on the banks of the Thames, frequented by merchants  from the City of London.

At the end of the visit we descended to the Crypt (above) and learnt how it was used as an air raid shelter in wartime, and how the Vicar used to lead the people sheltering there in the third collect for Evening Prayer, very appropriate in the circumstances.

It goes like this: 'Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord, and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night for the love of thy noly Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.'

Earlier we ascended to the third floor, Pauper's Gallery, where less well-off members of the congregation, who couldn't afford the pew rents on the ground floor, were accommodated.

Fortunately, these days all the seats in St James's are free.

In the Pauper's Gallery, just under the church roof

Engaging with brokenness

To the annual Evangelists Conference at All Souls, Langham Place, in the shadow of the BBC.

This year's conference, held in London and Manchester, had a special focus on ministering to the tougher areas of our large cities.

In addition to a superb keynote address from the main speaker, there were seminars on  debt, homelessness, addiction, eating disorders, crisis pregnancy and single parent families, followed by a sample sermon from main speaker Steve Casey that he had preached in his own church on a Liverpool Council Estate.

It was an excellent day, brilliantly organised. Here's how the day was described online:


'The good news of the gospel is for everyone—not just those who have their lives “together”. In fact, the gospel meets us, and promises hope to us, in the very hour of our deepest need.

We are delighted to welcome Steve Casey (right)  and a large team of specialist seminar speakers to stimulate our thinking about how to reach out with the Gospel to our broken world. Steve’s experience of working on a tough housing estate, and his involvement in Christian Counselling UK will help navigate us through the opportunities, and avoid the pitfalls we see on every side. Join us for what promises to be a challenging and enlightening day.

Steve casey is a full-time pastor at Speke Baptist church in Liverpool where he has worked doing outreach with a huge range of people for the last 20 years. Steve works with Biblical Counselling UK and Living Leadership and brings passionate Biblical insight and a wealth of practical experience to this issue.'

Return of the joy slide?

From 1931 a clip from a film about the activities of Bermondsey Borough Council, shown tonight at a meeting of the Friends of St James's Churchyard.

The clip shows the famous 'Joy Slide' which enthralled generations of Bermondsey children.

The big question at tonight's Friends meeting was: can the Joy Slide come back in a new form, perhaps via a national competition to design an innovative children's slide for the 21st century to be sited in our Grade 2* listed churchyard?

St James was the subject of a national competition once before. That was the one held in the 1840s to
design the picture of the Ascension that adorns the East wall of the church.

It was won (against stiff competition from the leading painters of the day) by a completely unknown artist. Perhaps history might repeat itself with the joy slide.

Celebrating the Light

The Light Party is our family-oriented alternative to Halloween on 31st October at 5pm.

Come and celebrate the light with games, music, and hot dogs

Children must be accompanied by an adult and you need to book a place here

Bermondsey Rhapsody

St James & St Anne's Harvest Supper tonight in St Anne's Hall concluded with a special Bermondsey version of Bohemian Rhapsody (left).

Earlier we had been treated to dancing by Sam, ventriloquism by Bradley, a mother and daughter harvest hymn by Lola and Linda, plus songs by Roger, Sarah, David, Rachel, Tracey, Debbie & many others, plus artwork by Alan (what a talented lot) but a veritable food mountain for our bring-and-share harvest supper, making a wonderful evening of harvest joy for both churches.

Meanwhile, next door in the church, everything was ready for St Anne's Harvest Festival in the morning:

Family favourites

Our latest Bermondsey Christian Training course got off to a great start tonight, looking at the story of Joseph from Genesis 37-50.

Each week we are watching a clip from Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and for our meal at the end of the course, we are planning a karaoke-style Joseph singalong.

Tonight was just the first episode of Joseph's extraordinary story, and it started with something we can all identify with: the messiness of family life.

Jacob, the father of the family, ended up with 12 sons by four different women. There were huge problems along the way: favouritism, deception, an attempted murder, and general unpleasantness all round, but there is another story taking place alongside this story, and that is God's story.

God's story, or rather God's plan, is to take the messiness and muddle of Jacob's family and work

Bermondsey Christian Training

things together for good, and ultimately save many lives.

It is the perfect illustration of that verse in Romans chapter eight verse twenty eight that says 'in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.'

And we'll see exactly how that worked out in the next seven weeks of the course.

Ready, steady, grow at St Anne's

They were pouring in this morning to the recently started group for parents and toddlers at St Anne's.

Here's a picture of the buggy park in the vestibule of St Anne's Hall this morning.

Ready Steady Grow takes place on Wednesday mornings during term time and is proving to be a great place for toddlers, parents, and carers from the local community to meet up in a relaxed and friendly setting.

New families are always welcome at RSG at St Anne's on Wednesdays from 9.30am or at the St James's group, Little Angels, on Thursdays from 9.15am.

Harvest time in Bermondsey

All is safely gathered in.

St James's School came to church this morning for their harvest service and greatly added to the pile of gifts we are building up for the Manna Centre's work alongside the homeless.

The centre at London Bridge welcomes 120-150 people each day. They are open 7 days a week and serve around 800 meals each week, and in the space of a year they help 300 people find accommodation.

They estimate that Harvest gifts from the local churches provide about 70 per cent of their foodstuffs

for the year.

It is good to know that the harvest gifts from church and school are going to such a good cause - as will St Anne's harvest goods after the harvest service there on Sunday.

Rich Man and Lazarus part 2

St Anne's was taking a look at the Rich Man and Lazarus story, too, today, and a sad sight greeted their eyes as they arrived this morning for church (left).

It was only once the service had got going, and the Gospel Reading had ended, that it became apparent that today's preacher, a.k.a. the Rev Stan Catton, was the very same person the congregation had passed on their way into church.

It was a sermon that packed a punch...

The Long Road to Bermondsey

On 2nd September the Diocesan Office in Borough High Street posted a letter to us at St James Vicarage, a mere 1.4 miles away.

The letter arrived 24 days later.

It had travelled at the rate of 100 yards a day.

It would have been quicker to have sent it by tortoise.

In fact, according to Google, your average Tortoise could have covered the 1.4 miles from Borough to Bermondsey in eleven hours, or about 48 times faster than Royal Mail.

The rich man and Lazarus

It was Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday at St James's today (St Anne's next Sunday; St James's School, tomorrow).

All three services are collecting items for the excellent Manna Day Centre (near London Bridge) and their work alongside the homeless people of London.

Today at St James we were looking at and acting out the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus from Luke 16. Here's the rich man (above) on his throne dressed in the finest clothing the Sunday school cupboard can offer, tucking into an early slap up lunch, with an actor for the part of Lazarus just being recruited.

Lazarus had nothing. He did well if he could get a few crumbs from the rich man's table, and the rich man never lifted a finger to help him.

But then the tables were dramatically turned (right) when both men died.

Lazarus ended up in heaven at Abraham's side, and the rich man ended up in Hades, the world of the dead.

The Rich Man asked for a warning to be sent to his five brothers still alive, but Abraham said they had Moses and the Prophets (ie the Bible) and they hadn't listened to them.

Then the rich man asks whether Lazarus could be sent to warn them.

They would take notice if someone rose from the dead, he reasons.

But Abraham replies 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone were to rise from death.'

It's one of Jesus's most powerful parables. It is full of meanings. At Harvest Time it says a lot about compassion for the poor, for sharing, for actually doing something to help. It points us to eternal realities, too, and reminds us we have God's Word now, and we need to listen to it and respond to it before it is too late to do us any good.

What Ted achieved

Stan and Bill

'Could a docker be a priest?'

That was the thought going through the mind of the young vicar of Bethnal Green, Ted Roberts. It rapidly became another question: how could a docker become a priest?

To cut a long story short, Ted found a way, and when he moved over the river to St James, Bermondsey he continued to find a way for local men to be trained, equipped and ordained, to bring the message of Christ to the people in the parish in a language they could understand.

Pictured (above) are two of the three Ordained Local Ministers, from St James who were ordained here in the scheme that Ted had helped to create in Southwark, and had pioneered in the East End.

Today St James was packed for a service of thanksgiving for his life. People came from far and wide to give thanks for Ted, vicar, pioneer, and innovator in ministry.

In my address I said this: 

"It was in the inner city, first in Bethnal Green, and then in Bermondsey that Ted spent much of his ordained ministry. In both places he worked to find ways for local men – it was just men in those days – to be trained and ordained in the church’s ministry. He saw the value of a truly local and indigenous ministry. Priests who were of the people they served, who spoke their language in ways that could connect with the lives they led.

If there is a Scriptural verse that sums up his approach it must be Acts 4.13, where following the healing of the lame man by Peter and John, and their appearance to give an account of themselves before the religious leaders, Luke comments: When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

The apostles were ordinary blokes, but they knew what they believed and they knew how to get it across to others, and they had had the best ministerial training anyone could have: they had been with Jesus.

Ted speaking at his daughter's wedding

What if ordinary blokes from Bethnal Green and Bermondsey, who had been with Jesus, could be trained, equipped, and ordained to bring the Gospel to their own communities? 

That was Ted’s vision which became a triumphant reality, first over in the East End, and then here in Bermondsey, where in God’s good time first, Snowy, then Bill and Stan, became ordained, local, ministers. Two of them are here today, the other is in the presence of the Lord he served.

If the cause of local ordained ministry has been temporarily eclipsed, who can doubt the need for Ted’s vision of ordinary blokes and women, equipped, trained, and ordained to proclaim the Gospel in our inner cities and outer estates, and the need for what he did then, to be done afresh in this generation?

There is a certain local football team (you may have heard of it)  that has the slogan: ‘Nobody likes us and we don’t care.’ It was Ted’s great achievement to show the people of Bermondsey that was not true. 

Ted liked them. Ted loved them. And he did everything in his power to show them that God loved them too. 

And so today in the church where he served we give thanks to God for his wonderful servant, Ted. To God be the glory.'


You can read Ted's obituary here

Remembering at Yalding

Dee, the Pearly Queen of Bermondsey (left), was one of many invited guests at today's Annual Memorial Service at the Age Concern Healthy Living Centre in Southwark Park Rd.

Each year St James & St Anne's clergy are invited to lead this moving outdoor service where elderly members of the centre who have passed away during the year are remembered.

At the end red roses are laid on the memorial bench where the name of departed members are recorded.

Barry Albin-Dyer, was a great supporter of the service, and was an honoured guest each year, so it was fitting that his sons, Jon and Simon, together with their wives, were present for this year's service where Barry himself was included in the list of names that were read out - by Simon, after Jon (left)  had spoken some well chosen words.

It was good, too, to pray, to hear the familiar words from John 14, and to think of our final home in the Father's house.

Yalding is a day centre with a difference, a lifeline for many, and a real community hub, all presided over by the amazing Simone who works so hard to make it the wonderful place it is.

The Pearly Queen of Bermondsey & the Mayor of Southwark

Simon on prayer

(Left) Sir Simon Hughes reading from the Bible and speaking this morning at the prayer breakfast organised by the LibDem Christian Forum at the LibDem party conference in Bournemouth.

They had a record turn out for Simon's talk during which someone tweeted: 'wonderful reflections from Simon Hughes on the importance of prayer.' Photo from Twitter 

The church's army

They call it the Church of England's best kept secret: the Church Army, older than the Salvation Army, but just as good.

Today Captain Nick Lebey, hot from paternity leave following the birth of his second son, was our guest speaker at, first, St Anne's, and then by bit of quick footwork,  at St James, too.

Nick works on the Thamesmead estate in south-east London and is a pioneer youth evangelist. He is also standing for General Synod (hope you get elected, Nick).

It was the kind of sermon you did not want to end as Nick enthralled us with his passion for the Gospel and reaching those on the edge of the church and right outside the church.

He reminded me of all that I love about the Church Army.

As a young vicar on the St Helier estate in south London I had only been dimly aware of CA but there I served alongside a succession of excellent Church Army evanglists, first David, then Pete, then Paul ....and then in the goodness of God the last of these, Paul, after a spell in the Midlands, came to join us on the team here in Bermondsey.

Like the beer in the advert, Church Army reaches the parts the rest of the Church doesn't meet. Its
officers are official Church of England evangelists, commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

They are 'Good news people', dedicated to sharing the good news about Christ.

So thank you Nick, thank you David, Pete and Paul, and thank you God for your excellent and indispensable Church Army.

From Nick's own youth club, you can hear Jack's story here:

Salmon Saturday

Just up the road from the scene of today's military commemoration, also in Old Jamaica Rd, is the Salmon Youth Centre and today was their community open day and AGM.

The public got a chance to see Salmon's wonderful facilities and the equally wonderful staff, volunteers, and young people that make this youth centre the wonderful place it is, open to all, with a warm Christian heart.

Ever since its foundation as the Cambridge University Mission by Pa Salmon in 1906, CUM, and latterly the Salmon Youth Centre, has been a crucial part of the Bermondsey landscape.

Today's meeting was chaired by St James Reader, Adrian Greenwood, Chair of the Trustees, with input from the newly elected President of the 10-13s (seated next to Adrian in the picture on the left), and from former Member of the Year, and Harry, who spoke with great eloquence of all that Salmon and a growing personal Christian faith have meant to him, before bringing us the bible reading for today's meeting.

Harry

Every year funding for youth work gets tighter, but Salmon made ends meet this year, thanks to some generous last minute donations, a wonderful provision by God and an answer to prayer.

When you see all that has been achieved, this investment in the lives of Bermondsey's young people is clearly money well spent.

So, long live Salmon!

MEANWHILE at the other end of Bermondsey, it was the Bermondsey Street Festival, and our friends from St Mary Magdalen were out in force, serving delicious Jerk Chicken and Hamburgers in the St Mary's churchyard, with a wonderful concert from the children at St Mary's church school, Boutcher, taking place in the church as we arrived.

The sun was shining and Bermondsey Street was thronged with people in a great community event in this rapidly changing corner of London.

Bermondsey remembers

A military band, the Army cadets, the MP, the Mayor, the Councillors, local clergy, Sir Simon Hughes and lots of veterans, together with members of the public, gathered this morning in brilliant sunshine for the long awaited rededication of the War Memorial in Old Jamaica Rd, to be performed by the Bishop of Southwark.

 When the old military training centre, which stood in Old Jamaica Rd, was demolished, the old war memorial was carefully dismantled, stored, and then, when the new block of flats was built, it was reinstalled in its old location, ready for today's rededication by Bishop Christopher (right).

The names of 970 Bermondsey men who gave their lives in the First World War are inscribed on the monument which was first unveilled in 1921. In addition, there is a separate plaque commememorating those who died in the Second World War and a third plaque, unveilled today by the Mayor of Southwark, commemorating today's rededication of this Grade 2 Listed Monument.

The Deputy Lieutenant, representing the Queen, laid the first wreath

It is good to know that in the midst of all the redevelopment in Bermondsey, this crucial part of our heritage has been remembered and honoured, and that, best of all, we have continued to remember those Bermondsey boys who gave their lives for the nation.

This year, as always, there will be a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial on Remembrance Sunday at 10am led by St James's clergy.

Part of the guard of honour, those on the right wearing period WW2 uniforms

Finally, a video of today's events, tweeted by Southwark News

Head down to Abbey Street for some war-era tunes as the memorial to Bermondsey's fallen men gets rededicated pic.twitter.com/csnh2ayqMk

— Southwark News (@Southwark_News) September 19, 2015

Partying in the churchyard

Day two of our church weekend and we're in St James's churchyard for a united open air service and a talk from, guest speaker for the weekend, Jon Westall (left).

In his fourth talk from the book of 1 Thessalonians, Jon's theme this morning was hope, the ultimate hope that is rooted in God's love and grounded in the death of resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It was great stuff and a fitting conclusion to a wonderful weekend, but it was not yet over.

After three cheers for the Queen on the occasion of her becoming our longest reigning monarch; happy birthday to Daisy, Debbie and Stan;and a rousing rendition of 'How great thou art' to end with; it was time to fire up the barbeque and get dancing, as DJ Danny had just arrived, and the sun had come out, and it was party time in the Churchyard...

Happy birthday to Daisy, Debbie, & Stan - at the end of the service

Dancing to DJ Danny's music - thanks Danny

The Salmon bouncy castle was a great hit with the youngsters