Capital City - Part Two

Tuesday 17 July was the most exhausting but perhaps the most rewarding day of the sabbatical so far. I was up before 6 a.m. to bid farewell to Jessica and leave Dorking on an early train for the city. I deposited a suitcase in left luggage and had breakfast at St Pancras Station and then headed out to north London for a meeting with the Archdeacon of Hampstead, the Ven Luke Miller, in Wood Green.

Luke Miller

We had never met before, but soon struck up a lively and very enjoyable conversation. Luke is from the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church and offered me a different perspective to other Archdeacons I had met on my travels. It was extremely helpful, and it was good to hear of significant growth in parishes of that tradition in London, both through conventional and innovative forms of ministry and mission. There were some very encouraging stories of partnerships forged with local authorities that are inviting and trusting the Church to make use of facilities and run community programmes that are no longer affordable from the public purse. He had some penetrating insights into the way his Diocese facilitates mission, and there were some interesting comparisons to be made between our two cities of London and Manchester. Once again, I was very grateful to a busy Archdeacon for his precious time.

Rachel Treweek

I left Wood Green to head back to the city and a rendezvous on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral with the Archdeacon of Hackney, Rachel Treweek. Rachel is a friend of my former curate from South Cave days, Hilary Edgerton, and we got to know each other about three years ago when we both participated in a week-long training course on 'Conflict Transformation'  run by Bridgebuilders for senior church leaders. Rachel and I were chosen near the end of the course to lead the whole group of denominational leaders in a major conflict exercise, which was about as stressful an experience as I can recall in any training event, but established something of a bond between us, I think, through shared suffering.


We talked over lunch in a nearby restaurant and Rachel was able to fill out my understanding of the approach to mission in London Diocese in a way that was extremely useful. She knows London well, having served there throughout her parish ministry and also as Archdeacon of Northolt before moving to Hackney Archdeaconry. As in other conversations over the last few weeks the time flew by, and the Church of England was put to rights. It was beginning to come home to me just how much that is good in the Church just 'happens', and Diocesan strategy has to try to catch up. I guess that is a mark of the Holy Spirit at work.

By now I was glad of a rest afforded by a change in my schedule that left a gap until 5 o'clock. I had been carrying my camera around London with me and was able to walk on the Millennium Bridge, sit by the Thames, and take a few photographs around the river and St Paul's. It was a chance to observe the city preparing for the Olympic Games. Looking downstream the Olympic Rings are suspended from Tower Bridge, which is now dwarfed by the Shard, the city's latest skyscraper. Olympic bunting is festooned everywhere and tourists carried Olympic souvenirs. In a couple of weeks' time I shall be back in London to attend two games events, and the anticipation and excitement began to build.

My final appointment was in Shadwell, an inner-city area on the north bank of the Thames,  formerly dockland,  and now inhabited by a multi-cultural community with significant degrees of deprivation. In 2005 the Bishop of London invited Ric Thorpe and a team from Holy Trinity, Brompton, in West London, to plant a new congregation in St Paul's Church to bring new life and a fresh mission. Rachel had already spoken highly of the way in which the team had immersed themselves in the local community, some moving house to do so, and developed ministries of service to the local people. As a result, St Paul's Shadwell  has grown and, more recently sent its own teams out to plant congregations in two other churches that might otherwise have closed, St Peter's, Bethnal Green, and All Hallows, Bow. There are now quite a number of church plants across London (and elsewhere) that go back to Holy Trinity, Brompton, and it seems as though the Diocese now explores the possibility of a plant as a matter of course before closing a building.

Ric & Louie Thorpe

Ric told me the story of church-planting from HTB as well as showing me round the church and its facilities and giving me a glimpse of the area. This has not been an easy exercise, but God has given growth through faith and a great deal of hard work. For the Diocese and for other local churches, the church-planting process brings challenges, but there is no doubt that the principle and the practice of church-planting has had a major impact on the growth of the Church in London Diocese, which is now firmly part of the Diocesan Strategy, London Challenge 2012, and a Diocesan church-planting policy exists.

After an extremely worthwhile visit to Shadwell it was back to St Pancras to reclaim my suitcase, grab a bite to eat, and jump onto the 19.55 to Chesterfield - tired but excited by my visit to the capital and the people I had met - to begin what was meant to be a 'chill-out' period of the sabbatical. 

The next blog entry will tell how things didn't quite work out as planned....

And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Acts 2:47