Day seven

​We’re wrapping up a full day and are starting to see the end of the road, so to speak. Today we were off to St James Piccadilly. This historic church is in the middle of a swank commercial/business district. Christopher Wren designed and built St James in 1676 and is significant because it was one of the very few churches Wren wasn’t restricted for some reason as to the size and shape of the building. So, Wren built his vision of the perfect church. One of the significant things is that the building has clear, not stained glass, windows as Wren thought that the view outside a church was the best thing to see while in a church. Once, his windows looked out on pastureland. Now, you can sit in the pew and see the bustling city for which you pray inside the building. The church had been bombed [it seems like we’ve looked at a lot of bombed churches…] in 1940 and then restored. St James has this deep sense that ministry is to be about embodying the love of Jesus in tangible ways in the world.
 
 
 
We were back to the Highbury Centre for lunch and a presentation on new ideas for Christian witness in the world. We have a lot of ideas…
 
This evening a few of us had an opportunity to go to a play by the Intermission Youth Theater Company. We’ve looked at and met some of the people connected with IYT in the past as well as some of the kids. The ministry is supported and sponsored by Holy Trinity Sloane Square and seeks to work with at-risk kids between the ages of 16 and 25. This time we actually got to see a play. The play, Ring of Envy, was an adaptation by the cast of Shakespeare’s Othello. The dialog slipped between Shakespeare’s original words and street-speak. To put it mildly, it was spectacular. The young man who played Iago gave one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. We’d go again if we had the time to do so.
 
We’re getting close to completing our work here and have a mountain of ideas to share with you all.
 
See you soon!
 
Peace from London

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