Toilets play a surprisingly essential role in the life of St Mary's. One of our biggest events each year happens when we open up our church hall to host supporters of London Marathon. There is always much gratitude for the refreshments and a warm place to sit and rest for a while, but the lions share of gratitude is directed towards our provision of toilet facilities, which provide great relief!However, as with many an older building, it can be a struggle to keep the toilets fully functioning, and it is a lesser known part of our incumbent's duties to be ready with a plunger or to lever up the manhole covers outside the hall to remove blockages.Bearing all of this in mind, we are still immensely grateful that we are fortunate enough to live in a country with a (generally) excellent sanitation system. In the knowledge that many others are not so lucky, this year we set out with our Lent appeal to raise money to twin the toilets in our church hall with a toilet in the developing world. We were able to raise enough to twin all of our toilets and to make a donation on top of that, donating £500 to Tearfund. The certificate confirming that our toilets are now twinned with a toilet in Cote d'Ivoire has been hung proudly on the wall beside the toilets for all to see.
May is traditionally said to be Mary's month, and at St Mary's Cable St, our statue of the Madonna and Child is crowned with a veil during May.There are differences of opinion about this tradition within the congregation, where some members love the tradition, some disapprove of it, but the majority are probably just slightly bemused by it.Of course, we honour Mary all year round as the mother of Christ, but the tradition that May is Mary's month apparently dates back to the 13th Century, although it gained in popularity in the 18th Century. It is probably related to the idea of spring as a time of fertility, and in some churches Mary is given a crown of flowers on May Day.
On the day of London Marathon St Mary's Church Hall was open from 8.30am to 4.30pm offering hospitality to supporters, stewards and police officers managing the event. Our hard-working volunteers provided teas, coffees and cold drinks and a variety of refreshments but just as importantly, toilet facilities. As the day was quite cool, people also appreciated an opportunity to come into the warmth of the church hall and rest for a little bit.All facilities were free, but guests were generous in making donations and we raised around £1,100. Some of this money will be donated to the Toilet Twinning project (in addition to our twinning money) to provide basic sanitation for communities who may have limited access to toilets. As many of the guests using our facilities could tell you, being able to find a decent toilet when you need it is a real relief.As ever, it was a real pleasure to be able to welcome people into our hall and provide a little respite during the day. We hope that many who came this year will come back again in future years and we congratulate all the incredible people who ran the marathon and the dedicated people who support them and the stewards and many others who make the day such a wonderful event.
Fr Peter's review of Pastoral Care in Practice: An introduction and guide, by Michael Hopkins, was recently published in the Church Times.You can read it here: Book review: Pastoral Care in Practice: An introduction and guide by Michael Hopkins (churchtimes.co.uk)
