Photo courtesy of the Council of Lutheran Churches."There is one body and one spirit..."The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (WPCU) takes place each year from 18th to 25th January - the octave of St Peter and St Paul. This ecumenical celebration provides an opportunity to focus our prayers on Christian unity and to know that we are joining with our siblings in Christ in countries around the world.WPCU is also a great chance to speak about and experience Christian unity personally in our local area. This year WPCU takes Ephesians 4.1-13 as its central text, and its theme is summed up in verse 4: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling.”St Margaret's is praying for Christian unity, using some of the resources jointly prepared for this year by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity and the Faith & Order Commission of the World Council of Churches in partnership with Christian churches in Armenia, during our services from 18th to 25th January.This week, Rev. Joshua, was also invited to preach at an online service for the WPCU hosted by the Council of Lutheran Churches in Great Britain (CLC). The CLC is a communion of churches coming together to further the work of all Lutheran churches in the UK. Many of its member churches are in full communion with the Church of England through the Porvoo Agreement.Rev. Joshua reflected on two prayers from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer - the Collect for Unity, itself based on Ephesians 4.1-13, and A General Thanksgiving - and our commitment as Christians to nurture the dispositions that lead to greater unity and understanding between us. You can watch the service below:
Photo: St Margaret's Pilgrims 2025. Image courtesy of J.Titley.On Saturday 13th September, St Margaret’s enjoyed a pilgrimage day exploring some of the religious sites of the City of London and discovering more about our local history. After Morning Prayer in Ilford, we began the day (perhaps unexpectedly for a church group) with a visit to the London Mithraeum and an intimate encounter with an example of pagan religion in ancient London. The Mithraeum lies over the course of one of city’s lost rivers, the Walbrook. Nearly two thousand years ago when Londinium was founded by the Romans, this river marked the limits of their first settlement. In the third century AD, a Roman Londoner built a temple to the pagan god Mithras on this reclaimed ground next to the river. Today, you can see the ruined foundations of the temple and experience the sounds of ancient Mithraic rituals. Hearing the sound of Latin chants in the subterranean gloom of the Mithraeum, we pondered what made Christianity distinctive then and now from the other religious traditions surrounding it – an especially important question as the following day was the Feast of the Holy Cross, when we focus on the saving power of Christ’s death and resurrection for us.Next, we moved to All Hallows-by-the-Tower, an early mediaeval church, formerly known as All Hallows Barking with links to Barking Abbey – which also founded the Hospital Chapel in Ilford. The church’s proximity to the Tower of London meant that it was long used for the temporary burials of (in)famous religious figures, including Thomas More, John Fisher, and William Laud. The church has some notable American connections too – the sixth President of the United States of America, John Quincy Adams, was married at All Hallows, and William Penn – the founder of Pennsylvania – was baptised there. In the twentieth century, one of All Hallows’ vicars, Tubby Clayton, founded the Toc H movement tending to servicemen and there is now a fascinating crypt museum exploring the church’s history from the Roman era to present day via the Civil War, Templar knights, and the First World War.After lunch, we regrouped at St Lawrence Jewry for a tour led by the Guild Vicar, Rev. James Titley. St Lawrence is the official church of the Corporation of London and has been destroyed and rebuilt twice following devastating conflagrations: firstly, the Great Fire of 1666 and, secondly, the Blitz of 1940. The seventeenth century rebuild was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and the church has recently been restored to an appearance similar to that of Wren’s original design.We heard the story of the early Christian martyr St Lawrence who was entrusted with the material goods of the church in Rome and the distribution of alms to the poor. When the Roman authorities demanded that Lawrence hand over the ‘treasures of the Church’, he presented the people to whom he had distributed the treasure as alms. The enraged authorities then condemned Lawrence to death, roasting him on a gridiron. He is said to have died with the witty remark, “Turn me over, I’m done on this side.”In another local connection, we discovered that beneath the high altar of St Lawrence Jewry lie eighteenth century Archbishop of Canterbury John Tillotson and his wife Elizabeth Tillotson, for whom Valentine’s Mansion was built in Ilford.We closed our visit with a group photo in the side chapel celebrating the original founding nations of the Commonwealth and headed to Choral Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral, marking the eve of Holy Cross Day – an occasion made even more enjoyable by the presence of one of our own in the cathedral choir.A grand day out and fun was had by all, and we learnt a great deal about the religious history and riches of London.Deo gratias!
