Bermondsey Vicar

Monday, 30 November 2020

Light shining in the darkness

A dark building on a dark night can be a gloomy sight, so this year which has included so many trials and troubles for so many, we have decided to let the lights shine - literally.

We're using low energy bulbs but we are leaving the church lights on overnight throughout Advent as a witness to the Light that shines in the darkness: Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

Forget Kings Cross, St Pancras, or Waterloo, Bermondsey was there before all of them. Spa Station, just across the road from St James Church, was the first London terminus, opening in 1836, just seven years after the church was consecrated, and just eleven years after George Stephenson's Locomotion 1 became the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public line.

St James itself features on the commemorative plaques (above) that have been installed along the route of the railway.

Here is the booking office of Spa Station:

And here is a contemporary view of the railway with the church in the background (the inspiration, I believe, for the commemorative plaques):

Bermondsey Daily Message 185

Tuesday, 24 November 2020

The forgotten people

It is extraordinary how often working class people are ignored, overlooked or written out of the story altogether.

A prime example was at the Church of England General Synod today.

A new vision document for the national church of a more diverse church made no mention of working class people at all - a huge group in the nation, heavilly underrepresented in the church.

We were promised diversity of 'age, colour and ethnicity' but there was no mention of class. Unless we also strive for diversity of class the CofE will never remotely be anything like a church of the whole nation.

The neglect of working class people who literally never got a mention today is a scandal and it is also a gospel issue because is about the spiritual welfare of millions of souls.

By coincidence, tonight I finished this brilliant book by Dagenham born firefighter and trade unionist, Paul Embery. Paul's message is addressed in the first instance to the political Left but so much of what he says is a message, too, for the church.

No one at Synod today said they despised the working class, they just didn't mention them at all, which is almost worse.

But, if we believe the Gospel is God's news for all people, then everyone needs the chance to hear it and no one must be forgotten.