London's 100 Best Churches

The Corporation of London planning committee will shortly be discussing an application from St Anne & St Agnes Church.

A “modest scale” extension behind the church, on its north side, is planned for kitchen and toilet facilities.

With the departure of the Lutheran congregation for St Mary-at-Hill, the church is now in the hands of the charity Voces Cantabiles Music (VCM) which uses the church for promoting excellence in vocal music education and outreach.

The application mentions also having regular services. These are unlikely to be every Sunday or even daily but maybe the keeping of St Anne’s Day (26 July) and St Agnes Day (21 January) might be suitable occasions.

The application documents include an excellent Heritage, Design and Access report which makes very interesting reading. It is the best and most detailed history of St Anne & St Agnes available.

The report rightly states that “the principal interiors and exteriors of St Anne and St Agnes are of both national and international significance”.

The funeral of Roger Lloyd-Pack, famous for his role in television’s Only Fools And Horses, has taken place at the Actors’ Church, St Paul’s Covent Garden.

The Mail has the best pictures.

There will be a piano recital by Bishop Michael Marshall at St Stephen Walbrook next month.

The recital, on Thursday 13 March at 7pm, will include pieces by Chopin including ’Nocturne No 20 In C minor’ which was published posthumously. The piece was played by Holocaust survivor Natalia Karp for the Nazi concentration camp commandant Amon Goeth who was so impressed that he spared Karp’s life.

The recital finishes on a lighter note with Bishop Michael and Roy Hyslop, who is showing an exhibition of his paintings, sing songs by Noel Coward and Irving Berlin.

The evening will end with a reception and the opening of the Roy Hyslop exhibition which runs until 24 March. Proceeds of the recital and the sale of paintings will go to the work of SPA (Scripture Prayer Action).

Tickets are available online.

This year will see several clergy changes in City of London churches.

The Ven Lyle Dennen

This week Lyle Dennen has said farewell to the congregation at St Andrew’s Holborn. He arrived from Brixton in 1999 when he was appointed not only guild vicar but also Archdeacon of Hackney. He stepped down from the latter position after just over a decade.

Looking after St Andrew’s is a much bigger job than it may at first appear. He has opened the crypt and taken St Gervais in Paris as the inspiration for the worship upstairs.

Outside, the area has changed with the arrival of Sainsbury’s HQ and its supermarket on the former Daily Mirror site opposite.

The Ven Peter Delaney

Peter Delaney, priest-in-charge of St Stephen Walbrook, will retire after the Easter Vigil in April. He will have completed ten years there having taken over during the time he was Archdeacon of London.

“I have tried to build on the enduring example of my predecessor Dr Chad Varah,” says Peter Delaney. “His views of an inclusive church have underpinned all that we have done to rebuild the Walbrook community.”

The former Archdeacon of London adds that the City is a very different world from that of the time when Chad Varah began his ministry at Walbrook.

“It is a different City of London; still international but much more difficult to penetrate through security systems and the dense world of electronic communications. You are more likely to gain access to a local business community through your iPhone or iPad than by calling at the door or picking up the telephone.”

Chad Varah’s Samaritans landline telephone is on display in the church.

Peter Delaney was Vicar of All Hallows-by-the-Tower from 1977 to 2004.

The Ven David Meara

Also retiring at Easter is David Meara, Rector of St Bride’s Fleet Street.

He was appointed to the journalists’ church in 2000 and leaves just as the spire reappears after vital restoration. The church has completed a successful £3.5 million re-endowment appeal as well as the restoration project.

For the last five years David Meara, a contributor to The Times, has also been Archdeacon of London and will relinquish that post in July before moving to Oxfordshire.

Bishop Stephen Platten

In July Stephen Platten, at present Bishop of Wakefield, will become Rector of St Michael Cornhill. He will also be an honorary assistant Bishop in the Diocese of London and chair of the Hymns Ancient and Modern charitable trust.

CANCELLED: The event below has now been cancelled.

Ann Widdecombe and Lucy Winkett are launching their books at St Mary-le-Bow on  Tuesday 25 February at 6.05pm.

The former Conservative MP has written Sackcloth and Ashes to explore the place of penance in a me-me-me world.

Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James’s Piccadilly, will introduce her book Our Sound is our Wound which meditates on how we listen for the voice of God within the soundscapes of our lives.

Both books will be on sale after the panel discussion.

Admission is free.

The Sacred Heart parish in Wimbledon was handed by the Jesuits to the Archdiocese of Southwark on the 80th anniversary of the death of the church’s founder Edith Arendrup.

The hill-top church was packed, with many people standing, on Friday 10 January when over 30 priests and bishops concelebrated with Archbishop of Southwark Peter Smith.

At the same time the new parish priest Monsignor Nick Hudson was welcomed. As a child he was baptised in the church, attended school next door and was ordained in the Sacred Heart. He comes back to be parish priest from Rome where until last year he was rector of the English College.

Edith Arendrup was a member of the Courtauld family who in 1877 invited the Jesuits to start a Mass centre in her nearby house. Later she provided the funds for the magnificent church seen from the railway.

There are pictures on the diocesan website.

The Sacred Heart Wimbledon describes itself as “an inclusive, welcoming and open Catholic parish serving the wider community” and “a church for tomorrow”.

This year is the 200th anniversary of Australia’s founder Admiral Arthur Phillip which makes the regular commemoration at St Mary-le-Bow special.

Unfortunately Australia Day this year falls on Sunday when the City church is closed so the annual service is to be on Monday 27 January.

The service starts at 11.30am and an address will be given by Sir Michael Savory, Chairman of The Admiral Arthur Phillip Memorial Trust.

Phillip came from Lyndhurst in the New Forest where celebrations are planned. Richard Johnson, curate at Boldre Church, who travelled with the admiral’s fleet and 800 convicts is credited with introducing Christianity to Australia.

Australia Day 26 January is the day in 1788 when the fleet arrived in today’s Sydney Harbour named after Home Secretary Lord Sydney. “Next morning he founded Austria,” says historian Bev Major so the service is by chance on the appropriate day.

Admiral Arthur Phillip was born in 1738 and died on 31 August 1814.

Fr Christopher Courtauld who was vicar of St Paul’s Knightsbridge for over twenty years years has died.

He is death came on Saturday at the family home in Essex.

His mother mother, Lady Butler, died just five years ago aged 101.

Family and close friends are being invited to the funeral at Gosfield Church in Essex where members of the Courtauld family are buried in the churchyard.

The date of the memorial service at St Paul’s Knightsbridge will be announced shortly.

This is just a selection of the many carol services over the coming two weeks:

St Bride’s, Fleet Street
Monday 16 December, 6.30pm
Journalists’ Carols (collection on door)

Sunday 22 December, 6.30pm
Nine Lessons & Carols

All Hallows-by-the-Tower
Monday 16 December, 6pm
Service de Noël en Français

Thursday 19 December, 6pm
Traditional Carols by Candlelight

Sunday 22 December, 4pm
Festival of Lessons and Carols

St Mary-at-Hill
Wednesday 18th December, 6pm
Parish Carols by Candlelight

Christmas Eve Tuesday 24 December, 4pm
Lutheran Nine Lessons & Carols

St Mary-le-Bow
Thursday 19 December, 1.05pm
Parish Christmas Carol Service

Southwark Cathedral
Sunday 22 & Monday 23 December, 6.30pm
Traditional carols and readings

The Revd David Ingall is the new priest-in-charge at St Sepulchre’s in the City of London.

After a long gap Sunday services have now been resumed. There is ‘contemporary worship and teaching’ every Sunday at 10.30am.

A congregation has been planted from St. George’s in Holborn which was itself recently taken over by the Holy Trinity Brompton team.

There is lunchtime worship or a talk on Tuesdays 1-2pm.

Choral Evensong is sung every Tuesday at 6.30pm which maintains the tradition which is important for the Musicians’ Church.

The Church, now operating under the slogan ‘Living for God in the heart of the City’, is open Monday to Friday 11am to 3pm.