Sermon to the Court of Common Council

As part of his year as Chaplain to the Sheriff of London, Josh preached to the Court of Common Council at a service on St Mark's Day including the Lord Mayor, Alderwomen and Aldermen, and Councillors as well as officers of the Corporation of London, at St Lawrence Jewry.

The reading was 1 Corinthians 12:12-26.

The City of London is a hugely successful common enterprise. As our current Lord Mayor likes to say, it is ‘the world’s oldest democratic workers’ and residents’ cooperative’. And it has produced exceptional riches – not only financial, but historic, cultural, political, for the wider UK and indeed the world.

At the heart of the City is this Corporation. This body of government, made of many parts.

The wards which you represent: each one is shaped by the stories of its people, its distinctive character and contribution to the City. The unique voices of those who live and work and visit your neighbourhoods: these are heard in the City’s deliberations because you represent them.

This takes a lot of listening, a lot of attention, to be a Councillor, or to be an Alderwoman or Alderman. You will know well the temptation to listen only to the voices who soothe our ears, who tell us what we want to hear, who speak like us. But if our listening is partial, we miss the gifts that other parts of the body bring.

Listening is needed because it is too easy otherwise to forget what you here

know better than most: that the City’s success is a shared achievement. The combination of ingenuity and industry which characterises our businesses; the advocacy of our political leaders; the rule of law underpinned by our legal system; the civic and religious institutions who provide the holistic support and community which diverse residents and workers need to thrive.

All playing their part in building our shared prosperity.

This Corporation – this body – is made of many parts who contribute.

The modern City’s success is built on services. But not only the services we think of as a product of the City: legal services, accountancy, consultancy, insurance, and so on. There are as well the other services on which all of us rely each day: cleaners, concierges and security guards, caterers, couriers and cab drivers, baristas, street sweepers and supermarket shelf fillers.

Such service workers underpin our experience of this City as a pleasant and vibrant place to live, work, and enjoy life. But they are more than their function: like so many of us, these workers have come to the City with dreams and hopes, with a hunger for its success and a contribution to make.

The church which I lead, St Katharine Cree, is the Guild Church for Workers, and we provide a space for all workers, of every background and occupation to come together as friends, colleagues, fellow members of the body we to which we together belong. But we have a particular role in supporting service workers to gather to share their stories, to encourage one another, to pray, to build relationships of exchange and mutual respect and trust. Our busiest activities are free English classes for migrant workers so they can take part more in City life. There is an appetite not only to learn the language and get along in work, but to contribute widely, to be recognised and seen and listened to as those with a stake in this place, with a part to play.

We are training people in our community of service workers as leaders, not out of sympathy – although many have been victims of abuse, and face the challenges that first generation migrants often do – but because they are gifted people who are gifts to this body. They are strong, purposeful, full of faith and hope, and have a vision for contributing to our shared success. Perhaps one day some of them might join you as Common Councillors.

Meanwhile, together with other churches and institutions in the City we have begun a season of listening – holding more than one hundred face to face conversations with service workers over the next month – to hear not only their needs but their hopes and dreams for this City, and their part in it, as well. If you would like to be part of this listening process, or to learn what we hear, then let’s talk.

But for now, for today, may we together listen to every member of this body of which we are part, remembering that ‘those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable’, that we might receive the gift they have for us, and we might be open to the gift we need to be to each other.

May our Lord Jesus Christ bless you in your listening, bless you in your service, and bless you through the others who share in our corporate life together in this City of London.

Amen.

What's the WiFi code?

Revd Josh Harris writes...

Over the past two years of running St Katharine's, people have asked me this with the reasonable expectation that any venue in the City of London would have WiFi. It's like asking where the loo is. It just doesn't make sense to us to not to have an internet connection!

But not only did we not have WiFi - or even a landline phone - when we took on the renewal of this church, but the thick stone walls and the constellation of tall buildings around us conspired to leave a 5G dead zone more or less exactly in our church and hall! We tried a 5G router, but it never really worked.

The problem for us is that we are using the space here to build community among workers and their families in the City, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet. We discovered during Covid that 'data poverty' is a real problem - and this hasn't stopped being an issue for those on low incomes now we are in a hybrid world. Access to the internet is a basic requirement for functioning as a citizen: whether it is a passport application, opening a new bank account, or video calling family in another continent, having decent internet access makes a real difference. So we wanted to be in a position to offer free, high speed internet to anyone in our community who needs it.

But we are also building partnerships with other organisations who run activities here and hold meetings - and we also want to be able to offer this space to many others to use, whether partner organisations or hirers. A trade union lawyer who runs a free employment advice drop in clinic here has bravely contended with weak hotspots and other workarounds for more than a year: I cannot wait to show him what we've done...

This week we have finally completed installation of high speed internet throughout the building! It has taken more than one year for the planning, preparation and works to complete. I feel like I should retire now, as I am not sure what other professional achievement will match this!

Our fibre line is provided by Community Fibre, who were patient and helpful as we navigated (with help from our excellent Archdeacon and the Diocese's property department) the Faculty process for permission. In the end, engineers had to abseil over the roof as part of the process to install a line through a less sensitive part of the building. You would be surprised how many contractors were adamant we should just drill through the main south wall of a Grade 1 listed church to save them some cabling work...

We then had amazing support from the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT) who gave us pro bono advice to tender for a company to install the network throughout the building. Ours is a complicated site which means we wanted more than just one or two routers. They helped us find Adrian at Silvercloud Technologies. And then WCIT went above and beyond in also providing us with a substantial grant to pay for the cost of the works!

After much relief that the cabling works were sufficiently discreet and used existing cable runs that we did not need another full faculty, Ken the cabling man and his colleague installed the new system which is now up and running and being remotely monitored by Adrian's team.

We now have super fast guest and staff WiFi networks throughout our church, hall and other rooms. This is going to be a game changer for what we can offer here: both in terms of our own capacity to run an office here and develop actives, but also our ability to provide to workers and our partner organisations a well connected space here in the heart of the City as together we build communities of prayer and action with the workers of London.

New Associate Priest

Today the Bishop of London licensed Rev Alanna Harris as a new Associate Priest for Mission at St Katharine Cree. Alanna has been accompanying the team here for a little while, and undertaking a process of listening to the spiritual needs and interests of workers connected with our growing community. This change means she will now be taking more of a role in shaping the ministry and mission of the church as part of our renewal - although the role is 'non-stipendiary' (unpaid!) and in addition to her other responsibilities elsewhere!

Photo: Rev Alanna Harris alongside the Bishop of London and Josh, the Priest-in-Charge of St Katharine Cree.

Outside St Katharine Cree, Alanna works as a hospital chaplain in central London and is advising a number of mission organisations on their outreach and leadership development, and also works as a coach with a particular interest in helping leaders navigate transitions.