New Lead Chaplain at Canary Wharf

Our Associate Priest, Revd Alanna Harris, has started her new role as Lead Chaplain of the Canary Wharf Multifaith Chaplaincy. Alanna is leading a ten-strong multifaith team of paid and volunteer chaplains, providing pastoral care to organisations around Canary Wharf and advising them on matters relating to ethics, values, and faith in the workplace.  

Alanna brings over a decade of experience in ministry and leadership to the Lead Chaplain role along with academic credentials that include a Master’s degree in Theology, Ministry, and Mission from Ridley Hall, Cambridge University. Most recently, she served as Anglican Chaplain at Charing Cross Hospital, where she provided pastoral care as part of a multifaith NHS team. She also been serving us at St Katharine Cree, the Guild Church for Workers in the City of London, where she will continue to advise us on the development of workplace chaplaincy.

Reflecting on her new role, Alanna said:

“Faith has always been central to my life, guiding every decision I make. I am excited to bring my experience and passion for community engagement to the Canary Wharf chaplaincy and continue to provide vital spiritual support to those who work and live in this vibrant, multifaith area.” 

Please join us at a service of Welcome and Commissioning for Alanna held at All Saints Church Poplar on Thursday 24th October at 6pm. RSVP to jane@canarywharfchaplaincy.co.uk

Autumn programme

We are excited to start the autumn season at St Katharine Cree with a packed programme of exciting and interesting events - starting with the Lion Sermon on 10th October!

You can download the autumn programme (PDF) or check out our 'What's On' page with details of one off events and our regular pattern of prayer and worship.

Come and join in!

If you'd like to receive details about our events direct to your inbox along with further news and updates as we develop the Worker Church at St Katharine Cree, please sign up now.

Here are some of our Featured Events this autumn:

'Tending to the Soul': Reading our Lion Sermon Preacher's New Book

In her new book, Fully Alive:Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, Elizabeth Oldfield draws on ancient wisdom and often searingly honest stories about her life to gently suggest some habits and practices which can nudge us into building what she helpfully calls our 'spiritual core strength'. This is not about esoteric spiritual practices or religious rituals - what a friend of mine calls 'woo-woo religion' - but very ordinary, yet hard to actually do, habits which cultivate honesty, openness to people who are not like me, and a curiosity about the world.

Curiosity is clearly a value which Oldfield holds dear. It is also one which modern life paradoxically suffocates. The ease of finding information out, of a quick google search on a phone or asking Alexa for an answer, tends in many of us to short-circuit the giving of sustained attention which true curiosity requires. Yet if we are to find a way through to the deeper relationships, with each other and perhaps ourselves, which thriving through turbulent times requires, it is sustained attention which is so desperately needed. This is going to take some practice. I am glad Oldfield is here to gently help us find a path.

Elizabeth Oldfield's book is one to pick up and ponder, then perhaps set aside while a chapter percolates, before trying to read any more. Reading it is like sitting down with her for a coffee and chat, her legendary kindness and humour and humanity somehow jostling and ushering us far along a journey to reflecting on how we've become the people we are, and what we might do to become the people we would like to be.

You can come and hear Elizabeth speak as our 375th Lion Sermon preacher in October this year. It is free to come but you need to register to secure a place at this very special Choral Evensong: https://skc.churchsuite.com/events/u03zer4g