MEADOWHALL REFUSED MESSIAH BY E-MAIL

The Sheffield Telegraph reported yesterday:

Hopes of a 'flash mob' choir singing carols (sic) in Meadowhall have disappeared in a flash.

A Sheffield vicar said this week he believed it was because the centre did not want to show any religious bias - but managers insisted it was because they had been given too short notice at the busiest time of year and did not have space (December 23, p7).

In the light of this, Cranmer's Curate needs to make clear that he believed it because he saw it - in an e-mail. The firm refusal to allow a flash mob choir to sing from Handel's Messiah on Meadowhall's food court was e-mailed to cc on Monday by the centre management's public relations company, MK Things Happen:

Meadowhall Shopping Centre is open to the general public and therefore must remain impartial towards any one religion or political leaning. The Centre would therefore be unable to give permission for a flash mob choir - similar to the one in Ontario, Canada - to perform.

Your curate was not offering to organise a choir at such short notice before Christmas. He was merely enquiring whether the centre would welcome a choir proclaiming the Messiah, as did the one in the Seaway Mall in Welland, Ontario, last month.

Incidentally, whilst doing some Christmas shopping in Meadowhall last night cc observed that a flash mob choir could easily have performed in the food court to the delight of staff and customers.

Here is the news story on the Christian Institute website about Meadowhall's initial refusal.

Cranmer's Curate wishes the youth group a blessed Christmas celebrating the coming of the King of kings and the Lord of lords (banned from the Meadowhall food court until the media got onto it) and a fruitful New Year in Christ's service.

As he blogs off for Christmas, back God willing in the New Year, your curate leaves the youth group with the BCP Collect for Christmas Night:

O God, who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of thy Son, Jesus Christ: Grant that as we joyfully receive him for our redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold him, when he shall come to be our judge; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

LATEST ON THE MESSIAH IN MEADOWHALL

Cranmer's Curate was invited on BBC Radio Sheffield this morning to talk with Rony Robinson about the Meadowhall flash mob choir affair and there has been a development.

On Monday when cc contacted Meadowhall's public relations firm, MK Things Happen, here in Sheffield, they issued a clear statement that a flash mob choir like the one in Ontario which sang Handel's Hallelujah chorus in the food court would not be welcome. But on the radio this morning Rony read out the latest statement from Meadowhall. Apparently (and cc is going from memory on the wording) they are now saying they would be open to considering such a request in the future and have had a gospel choir singing in the centre, but they issued a refusal in this instance because of the 'timing'.

Odd explanation that. Handel's Messiah remains rather popular in the United Kingdom around Christmas time. But at least Meadowhall are singing a different tune from the firm 'nyet' of Monday.

When cc rang MK on Monday he was curious about whether Meadowhall would allow a flash mob choir to sing Handel's Messiah in its food court. He did not have a choir up his sleeve, but would have been delighted had the answer been yes.

That would have given an opportunity for a good quality Christian choir to proclaim the glorious good news of the King of kings and Lord of lords in the food court. Who knows? Someone munching on a Big Mac might by God's grace begin the journey towards redemption in Christ.

Here is the link to the article on Christian Today.

It is noticeable how a bit of bad publicity can concentrate the politically-correct mind.

NO ROOM IN MEADOWHALL FOR THE KING OF KINGS

Sheffield Station last week allowed a flash mob choir to sing Christmas carols in its main concourse. Last month Seaway Mall in Welland, Ontario, Canada, famously allowed a flash mob choir to sing the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah in its food court. But the Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield, one of the largest in Europe, does not want a choir singing ‘the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever’ in its food court.

A spokeswoman told Cranmer’s Curate:

Meadowhall Shopping Centre is open to the general public and therefore must remain impartial towards any one religion or political leaning. The Centre would therefore be unable to give permission for a flash mob choir - similar to the one in Ontario, Canada - to perform.

An old friend of your curate sent him the YouTube video of the Ontario flash mob choir as his family Christmas card. It is the best Christmas card cc has ever received. The joy on the faces of the singers and the surprised delight of the shoppers are profoundly moving as the praises of the King of kings and Lord of lords ring around the food court:

And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!

But in the Siberia of political correctness the Hallelujah chorus is frozen out.

No room in the food court for the King of kings and Lord of lords because the centre management must not be seen to favour one religion over another. It must be 'impartial'.

Except of course no shopping centre serving the UK public can achieve such religious impartiality.

The Name of Christ appears in the word 'Christmas', one world religion's festival that gets a much higher profile in the shops than that of any other 'faith group' in the UK.

The banishment of Christmas from a shopping centre would not go down very well with the retailers.

SERMON WITH AN EDGE OF DANGER

It was a very proficient sermon, engaging, clear in expounding the biblical text, well illustrated and well applied.

But this particular sermon on Revelation chapters 4 and 5 by the Revd Vaughan Roberts, rector of St Ebbe's, Oxford, had a vital element that is quite difficult to isolate or explain.

Cranmer's Curate can only describe it as an edge of danger.

The God, whose sovereignty in an apparently out-of-control world was so clearly communicated, came across as compellingly and gloriously unsafe.

This got cc thinking about preaching. However well expounded and well applied a sermon may be, it can lack that vital edge.

This is not to suggest that preachers who manage to convey it have access to some quasi-gnostic secret denied to the rest of us. Nor is this an attempt to try to resurrect sub-evangelical legalism around the 'quiet time'.

But it is to suggest that such preaching is the fruit of a consistently humble, privately prayerful walk - by grace - with this dangerous God, the glorious God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, may one conclude that an effective preacher of Christ is a faithful disciple of Christ whose discipleship is independent of his status as a preacher?

Is that not what makes him a preacher of sermons with a dangerous edge?

THIS ANGLICAN THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE IS WORKING

Cranmer's Curate has just received in the post an astonishingly good leaflet from the Anglican evangelical theological college in north London, Oak Hill. It features articles by four of its former students, and one current part-time student, ministering for Christ in a range of contexts from a council estate in Roehampton to a village in Sussex to a Merseyside urban priority area to south London African-Caribbean communities to Preston, Lancashire.

Below are some excerpts for the edification of the youth group.

Principal Dr Mike Ovey introduces the features (there is no by-line - a small production blemish perhaps - but a side-on picture of him so one assumes he wrote it):

When I think back to when I was growing up in the 70s, the message of the Christian faith often aroused nothing more than boredom or embarrassment when it was aired in public. Very few scientists or writers bothered to spend time on why they thought 'God is not great', in the words of the polemicist Christopher Hitchens.

They do now because the Christian faith, far from slipping into a coma as widely expected in the 70s, has become more powerfully attractive and controversial in our time.

For Christians in Britain today, this is a great moment to be alive and serving God. Our country, which has seen a long and painful decay of faith, is once again a mission field. People are hungry for the good news of God's love.

Particularly striking is the piece by Duncan Forbes of New Life Church on the Alton Estate, Roehampton. He writes:

A bloke just out of prison sat on my sofa and said: "If someone told me a year ago I'd be sitting in a pastor's living room, I wouldn't believe them. But you come from the same place as me, you've grown up the same way as me - but you're a Christian! I look at you and I see there's hope for me, I see what I could become."

He'd thought Christianity was only for middle class people - that it wasn't for someone from a council estate. I understand that, because the church is mainly geared for middle class culture.

It's one of the reasons I planted New Life Church on the Alton Estate - one of the largest council estates in the UK. And it's why we've started from scratch.

The article by the gentleman ministering in Preston is refreshingly honest. Daf Merion-Jones writes:

We came to Preston, Lancs, five years ago because we believe people need to hear the Bible taught in a way that is faithful, clear and relevant.

Preston is a city of 150,000 people, and All Saints church is right at its heart.

Our parish includes council housing, University halls of residence and 19th century terraces which are home mostly to people of Asian heritage. We have three mosques within half a mile.

What drives our ministry? It's the conviction that God will work by his Spirit when his word is preached, bringing people to know and love Jesus. I was grounded in this conviction at Oak Hill as week by week I was helped to understand God's word and equipped to teach it to others.

The challenges are great. We haven't even begun to develop relationships with our Asian community, but our God is great and the gospel of the Lord Jesus is the power of salvation for those who believe.

Oak Hill didn't teach me everything I need to know. But it did teach me that prayer, preaching and loving people are the heartbeat of ministry.

Efrem Buckle, ministering to African-Caribbean communities in south London, writes:

While mainstream Christianity is the fastest dying religion in the UK, according to recent statistics African-Caribbean churches continue to grow at a fervent pace.

There are many possible reasons, one being that such churches are often characterised by vibrant and emotionally charged preaching, together with singing that stirs the soul and lifts the spirit.

From my earliest years of growing up in this kind of church environment in south London, I've become aware of how these factors can be a spiritually incendiary cocktail, slyly creating a smoky fire that feeds on the true gospel, stinging the squinting eyes of those who hope to see the truth in Christ.

No amount of excitement and emotion, and no amount of 'God fearing' good works, can substitute for a theologically sound and robust view of God in Christ.

When the scriptures are wrongly taught, people miss out on the transforming power of the gospel. Oak Hill has really helped me unpack the word of God and distinguish between truth and error - and then communicate the gospel to others.

Praise the Lord - this theological college is working.

PLEASE MR BRADY - DEFEND CHRISTIAN LIBERTY

A letter to Mr Graham Brady MP, chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee, concerning the politically-correct prosecution of Christian bed and breakfast owners, Peter and Hazelmary Bull:

Dear Mr Brady, The peaceful demonstration outside Bristol County Court in support of Christian bed and breakfast owners Peter and Hazelmary Bull contrasts sharply with the appalling lawlessness we witnessed outside Parliament on Thursday.

The Bulls' supporters sang the great hymn by the converted 18th century slave trader, John Newton, celebrating the wonder of the salvation the Lord Jesus Christ has achieved for sinful mankind:

Amazing grace - how sweet the sound - that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

The Bristol demonstrators held up placards reminding the public that the Bulls are being sued for acting to uphold orthodox Christian moral standards in their own home.

The contrast in behaviour between the London and Bristol demonstrators surely contains a powerful message in itself: since the advent of the permissive society in the 1960s and the replacement of Christian values with the ideology of political correctness, our country has become significantly less law-abiding, courteous, civil, and thankful for the God-given privilege of living in a Parliamentary democracy.

I am not a member of the Conservative Party but am inclined to thank God that backbench MPs in the main political parties still have the capacity to hold the executive to account. By God's grace we are not yet an elective dictatorship.

I am writing, sir, to ask you at the next meeting of your 1922 Committee to raise the grave threat to freedom of conscience in our country represented by the politically-correct prosecution of the Bulls. The legal fees of the two gentlemen suing these two pensioners under equality laws brought in by the previous government are being paid for by the tax-payer-funded Equality and Human Rights Commission.

It is not the policy of the Bulls' guest-house near Penzance, Cornwall, to turn people away on the ground that they do not personally adhere to Judaeo-Christian moral values. The Bulls' policy in their own home is to offer single bedrooms to unmarried couples.

Surely in a democracy that owes so much to Christian spiritual and moral values guest-house owners should be free to operate that sort of policy.

Thank you for your consideration.

With all Christian good wishes,

Julian Mann
Vicar
The Parish Church of the Ascension,
Oughtibridge
www.oughtibridgechurch.org.uk

This book review of Shaftesbury: The Great Reformer by Wycliffe Hall Principal, Dr Richard Turnbull, appeared in December's Evangelicals Now.

NARNIA FILM DOWNPLAYS GRACE OF SALVATION

The new Narnia film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, significantly alters C.S. Lewis's original portrayal of the salvation of the negative secularist figure, Eustace Scrubb.

In both book and film Eustace is transformed into a dragon and restored to humanity by Aslan. But in the film Eustace is portrayed as earning his salvation by feats of bravery as a dragon, which are entirely absent from the book.

In the original, Eustace as dragon is a pathetic figure who undergoes some moral improvement in his humiliation. He is certainly not the fire-breathing, airborne equivalent of Bruce Willis:

But, of course, what hung over everyone like a cloud was the problem of what to do with their dragon when they were ready to sail. They tried not to talk of it when he was there, but he couldn't help overhearing things...And poor Eustace realized more and more that since the first day he came on board he had been an unmitigated nuisance and that he was now a greater nuisance still.

The book stresses the salvation of the helpless Eustace by the unmerited grace of the Christ figure:

"I think you've seen Aslan," said Edmund.

"Aslan!" said Eustace.

"I've heard that name mentioned several times since we joined the Dawn Treader. And I felt - I don't know what - I hated it. But I was hating everything then. And by the way, I'd like to apologize. I'm afraid I've been pretty beastly."

"That's all right," said Edmund. "Between ourselves, you haven't been as bad as I was on my first trip to Narnia. You were an ass, but I was a traitor."

"Well, don't tell me about it, then," said Eustace. "But who is Aslan? Do you know him?"

"Well - he knows me," said Edmund. "He is the great Lion, the son of the Emperor-over-the-sea, who saved me and saved Narnia..."

That crucial exchange is truncated in the film. Eustace's penitence is downplayed. He apologises for being a 'sop', rendering his previous negativism a sin against the spirit of adventure, which he atoned for by his derring-do as a dragon.

The film's under-emphasis on the grace of salvation is therefore the context for the controversial comment by the actor who provides the voice of Aslan, Liam Neeson:

Aslan symbolises a Christlike figure, but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries.

Who unlike Jesus Christ taught salvation by works.

POLICE COP IT FROM GODLESSNESS MORE THAN CHRISTIANS

Christians may be feeling hard done by, but it is much harder to be a policeman in the godless society that post-Christian Britain is increasingly becoming than it is to be a Christian.

Damned if they do take action against rampant lawlessness; damned if they don't.

Tasked to protect Parliamentary democracy armed with a truncheon but expected to perform the physical miracle of never accidentally hitting a violent thug, who is trying to trample over you, on the head with it.

The fact is 12 police officers were injured in the student riots outside Parliament on Thursday. And more police officers are likely to have their Christmases spoiled through injury in the line of duty in further violent demonstrations around the country.

Cranmer's Curate, in common with the rest of the parochial clergy, is very unlikely to get injured in the course of his public duties tomorrow. But those officers went to work with a God-given vocation and ended up hurt as a result of the evil behaviour of people with no respect for the privilege of living in a Parliamentary democracy and a Christian nation's track record in defending it - some quite seriously.

In doing their duty, whether they were Christians or not, those officers were doing the good Lord's work, for the true God, the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, upholds good order, as the Apostle Paul affirms:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement (Romans 13v1-2 - ESV).

In the light of that, it is true to say that the lack of gratitude and respect for the work the police do is a poisonous fruit of a godless society.

And the practical reality is that in politically-correct Britain frontline police officers are copping it from godlessness more than Christians.

SOUND FROM A DIFFERENT MORAL UNIVERSE

If you had gone to sleep in 1962 when Wilbert Harrison first recorded 'Let's Stick Together' and had woken up again in 1976 when Bryan Ferry covered it, you would have been blissfully unaware of the cataclysmic social revolution in those 14 years.

Like many people, Cranmer's Curate thought Mr Ferry had written the song he so stylishly rendered. But Saturday's Sounds of the 60s on BBC Radio 2 drew attention to the late Mr Harrison's original Let's Stick Together.

In the 'hook up, shack up, break up' society of 2010, the lyrics, with their appeal to the transcendent value of the marriage vow, sound from a different moral universe:

Well, a young marriage vow, you know, it's very sacred
The man put us together, now, you want to make it
Stick together
Come on, come on, stick together.

You know, you made a vow, not to leave one another, never
Well, ya never miss your water till your well runs dry
Come on, baby, give our love a try, let's stick together
Come on, come on, stick together
We made a vow, not to leave one another, never.

It might be tough for a while, but think of the child
Cannot be happy without his mom and his pappy
Let's stick together
Come on, come on, stick together
You know, we made a vow, not to leave one another, never.

A sacred vow indeed because the Lord Jesus Christ said: 'What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder' (Mark 10v9 - AV).

It was also great on Saturday to hear Tony Blackburn back on BBC national radio, hosting Pick of the Pops on Radio 2. They simply do not make disc jockeys like that these days - knowledgeable, enthusiastic and courteous.

A refreshing break from cynicism, sarcasm and profanity.

It now seems incredible that the architects of the permissive society honestly believed that undermining the institution of marriage would not lead to a collapse of good order and civility.

THE WONDER OF GOD COME DOWN TO EARTH

This by Cranmer's Curate appeared in the December edition of The Bridge, the magazine of the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge:

What’s your favourite Christmas carol? My personal favourite is ‘In the Bleak Mid-winter’ by Christina Rossetti (1830-94). She captures the wonder of the Incarnation in the unforgettable lines:

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain, heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign; in the bleak mid-winter a stable-place sufficed the Lord God almighty, Jesus Christ

The Sovereign Ruler of the universe, the God who will one day wrap up the present heavens and earth as easily as you and I might fold a blanket – he is the Lord who was born as a baby in the Bethlehem stable.

Christina Rossetti takes her cue from the Apostle John’s wondrous description of the Incarnation in the prologue to his Gospel:

And the Word (the divine Person who reveals God) became flesh and dwelt among us (us being the Apostles whom he chose to be with him in the days of his Incarnation), full of grace and truth; we (the Apostles) have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father’ (John 1v14 – RSV).

Why did he do it? Why did he make the sacrifice, the biggest come-down in the history of the universe? He did it for our salvation.

As the Apostle Paul put it:

While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man – though for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God (Romans 5v6-9 – RSV).

Who is the ‘we’ here? The Apostles? Yes, them but not just them. The ‘we’ who benefit from Christ’s saving death are all believers in God Incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul was writing these words to a local church – the one in 1st century Rome – made up of all sorts of people who had come to believe in Jesus through the message of the Apostles and others who proclaimed his salvation.

Any and every believer in Jesus Christ is included in the ‘we’ here. Christian believers are those for whom Christ died and whom he will save at the end of the world from God’s righteous anger – ‘wrath’ - on sinful mankind.

If you’re not yet included, you can be by putting your personal trust and public confidence in the world’s only Saviour, the Lord God Almighty for whom a stable-placed sufficed on the first Christmas Day.

ESTABLISHMENT CHURCHIANITY IS MARGINAL - THANK GOD

The debate over the extent to which Christians are marginalised and even persecuted in the UK is complex and is in need of some unravelling.

Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 has been used against Christian street preachers, and that is unacceptable. But the Christian community needs to ask itself about the wisdom of certain kinds of street preaching. It was a most effective form of gospel communication in 18th century Britain. But is it now the most effective way of communicating the gospel of God's love in Jesus Christ to 21st century Britons?

Also, some Christians have been facing difficulties in the public sector due to politically correct zeal by secularists in certain hospitals, schools and local authorities. It is absolutely unacceptable that offering to pray for a patient should get a Christian nurse into trouble. Bishops and clergy enjoying the protection of their office should not declare 'diddums' in the face of this sort of grief in the workplace.

But again the Christian community does need to ask itself honest questions about whether in every case it has been picking the right battle. Is it wise for Christians to insist on wearing a cross in the workplace?

Surely our badge is our Christian life.

It is clear that establishment Christianity - better labelled 'churchianity' because of its close identification with the institutional church - does not have the influence it once did, even in living memory. The difficulty the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, had in negotiating a slot with New Labour at the Millennium celebrations at the Dome was indicative of the waning influence of the established church.

He got a platform - just - but arguably he could have made more of a gospel opportunity of it had he had less of a sense that he was entitled to it.

A good case can be made that the waning influence of establishment churchianity is to be welcomed. When has it ever spoken with a prophetic voice? The centre-left thrust of archiepiscopal political pronouncements does not challenge UK establishment thinking with a distinctively Christian edge in any significant sense.

The last time an incumbent Archbishop of Canterbury made anything resembling a prophetic pronouncement on an issue of public policy was when William Temple criticised the bombing of Dresden in World War II. That did challenge a militarised culture intent on revenge with a Christian word about mercy.

Will we ever hear the established church in the UK speak with a clear voice that Jesus Christ is the divine Lord in whom all men and women need to believe and trust for eternal salvation?

The withering of churchianity arguably gives Christian individuals and churches who believe that a clearer run at the ball.

And let us be honest: we still have many opportunities for pro-active evangelism in this country, for which we should thank God. Christianity Explored and Alpha courses can go ahead without State interference and indeed in some instances with the support of politicians.

Compared to the situation the early Christians faced under persecuting Roman Emperors and that which many Christians are experiencing today particularly in Muslim countries, we have still got it pretty cushy.

It is therefore unworthy of the gospel, for which brothers and sisters in Christ are seriously suffering, for us UK Christians to play the victim card.

Stuart over at e-churchwebsites has asked cc to plug this poll on whether Christians in the UK are being persecuted.

KEEPING THE PRIDE OUT OF 'GROWING LEADERS'

Pride is a major concern in the pastoral epistles around leaders. 'He (the church overseer) must not be a recent convert or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil,' the Apostle Paul warned (1 Timothy 3v6 - RSV).

But to what extent does the problem of pride register on our radar as 21st century conservative evangelicals much preoccupied with 'growing leaders'? Clearly, we would be concerned about overt behavioural issues to do with sex or drink or money.

That we are overlooking the insidious pride problem may be indicated by the fact that criticism of the ministries of absent peers can be an unfortunate feature of the conversation wherever two or three conservative evangelical leaders are gathered together - 'he's a control freak,' 'he's weak as putty,' 'he can't teach,' 'he's disorganised,' 'he's manipulated by his charismatic wife,' 'his curates find him very difficult,' etc, etc.

One wonders whether the perception of certain overtly gifted or well-educated individuals as 'strategic' fuels pride. The mentor takes pride in his protegee who naturally takes pride in himself. The swivelling eyes of the minister on the door away from the old lady who wants to talk to him towards the 'strategic' potential leader beetling off to a sporting fixture is always a tell-tale sign of an unhealthy dynamic.

Cranmer's Curate came to Christian faith as a teenager through the Iwerne Minster network which focuses on evangelism in the southern independent boarding schools. He is hugely grateful to God for that ministry and its clear and winsome proclamation of the gospel. A Iwerne leader ran the school Christian union cc attended on a rather sporadic basis.

Of cc's contemporaries in that Christian union, there were some individuals who have become leaders in society. But not only are they not now Christian leaders, they are not even Christians.

Four boys from that peer group got ordained, including the unpromising and feckless adolescent whose blog you now reading. In terms of natural leadership ability none of us came anywhere near those highly gifted individuals who dabbled with Christianity as teenagers but did not persist.

Focusing on certain 'strategic' individuals with obvious natural gifts tends to fly in the face of the reality that God chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise and what is weak in the world to shame the strong (cf 1 Corinthians 1v27).

It also ignores a wonderful reality about supportive Christian networks and churches. That is that individuals can discover gifts that would never have emerged in the educational process. A new motivation to serve Christ, combined with the confidence gained from encouraging mentors, can bring to the fore latent natural gifts in a converted person.

All of us involved in public ministry need to watch our egos. Surely if we concentrated more on our calling to be followers of Christ and thought less of our status as leaders 'running' churches, we would be less likely to foster pride in the leaders we are wanting to grow.
____________________________________________

Cranmer's Curate has been reliably informed that St Mark's Battersea Rise, a large and growing church in south London, has been encouraging families in its congregation to join smaller churches in Southwark Diocese.

The enormous difference the infusion of a Christian family can make to Christ's ministry through a small church is difficult to overstate.

St Mark's was revitalised in 1987 by a group of 50 enthusiastic Christians joining it from Holy Trinity Brompton in Knightsbridge, west London. The parish plant was led by St Mark's current vicar, the Revd Paul Perkin.

There is a pertinent word for St Mark's pro-active support for the weak.

Christian.