Today’s Parochial Work

I was back at St. Anne and St Augustine’s Bermondsey today, eschewing St. Matthew’s yet again (it’ll be a tip when I get back next week). I brought my sneakers as my dress shoes aren’t fit for walking very far: after the service we would be going for a walk around the parish to familiarise ourselves with it.

The service was very nice, for an evangelical church, or a mostly evangelical church, it was very like St. Matthew’s. Louise is a good celebrant, and the attendance was very good indeed.

The next time I’m there, I’ll take some pictures of the inside of the church for y’all. It’s a bit cold inside (the radiators, while trying valiantly, just can’t quite bring the church up to room temperature; if you live in the area and want to go during the cold weather, bring jumpers. But the welcome will be warm, and the people are extremely friendly to newcomers.

As instructed, I thought a bit about how they actually “do” church there, and I had a few thoughts:

  • They have welcomers, and a visitors book, but following up on newcomers within two days would be very useful in getting them to come back. The reason I started attending Trinity Episcopal Church in San Francisco was that Robert Cromey, then Rector, called me Monday evening to invite me to dinner, and kept in touch until I joined the parish. St. Anne’s could benefit from doing that kind of work as well.
  • Everyone says that “No one knows where the church is.” The church is in a post-war housing square with no vehicular traffic. The houses obscure the church pretty well except for the tip of the spire. There are signposts pointing toward “St. Anne’s Church” but they are not prominent. I think that a combination of leafletting the entire parish (perhaps with a parish magazine) and having a summer event combined with a church service would go far in showing their neighbours where St. Anne’s actually is.
  • Their Sunday School is quite popular. They only have it on Sundays where they have Holy Communion. They should either have Holy Communion every Sunday or Sunday School every Sunday. There were 15 kids there and they were good as gold.

Here is the parish map. It’s quite an interesting little patch, with remnants of the old Bricklayers Arms railway running through the parish like a dividing line. The old St. Augustine’s church is now flats, and the vicarage soon to become same. The Blue street market is in the parish, which is a famous old Bermondsey market (now somewhat faded, I’m told). The old Peek Freans factory, still standing but converted into an industrial estate, is quite interesting.

It’ll be a very interesting 12 months. I’m looking forward to it. I just have to stifle myself and never tell them “You ought to do this or that thing…”. Telling them of my experiences elsewhere and contributing ideas for them to flesh out will be good.

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