And look at this: a prayer for those working on the construction site!

How many people have walked past these hoardings and read these words, which included several Bible verses? To me, this is the church at its best, making its presence known in the community, as a living, active force for good.

A Park – Continuing down LP Road, you get to the Archbishop’s Park.

This looks very different to how it was in 1901. Now there’s a fantastic adventure playground, a play area for younger children, basketball courts, a community garden and this interesting bench. A wonderful resource for the local community, thanks to the generous Church Commissioners.

A Parish Church – Formally known as Christchurch, on the corner of Kennington Road and Westminster Bridge Road, is Oasis Church, Waterloo.

The reason the church looks like it’s got a modern building attached to it is because it has – that’s Oasis Hub.

The Oasis Trust, pioneered by Steve Chalke MBE, was set up to partner churches with other organisations to benefit the local community, both in the UK and other countries, hence Oasis Hubs. There are now Oasis Academies, Children’s Centres, Community Housing, projects for vulnerable young people; and situated in Archbishop’s Park, a small community farm.  Also, a café which itself contains a public library, and serves a fine filter coffee for £1!

Geese on Oasis Community Farm

I took this course of study in 2013

And…. Plants! – Adjacent to Lambeth Palace is the former St Margaret’s Church, which in the 1970s was derelict and scheduled for demolition as the bomb-damaged building was beyond repair. It was rescued and restored, not as a church, but as The Garden Museum in 1977, following the discovery of the grave of John Tradescant, a 17^th Century royal gardener and plant hunter. John and Rosemary Nicholson, who discovered the grave, successfully applied for a grant to create a museum dedicated to garden history. Here’s the winter plant display among the gravestones, I’m sure it’s more colourful in the summer.

And one more ‘P’, Lambeth Pier. I’ve included the Pier because this is where Archbishops staying at the Palace crossed the River to get to the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) before Lambeth Bridge was built.

The boats are tied up at the end of the Pier, showing the short boat ride to the Houses of Parliament on the North Bank.

Conclusion: I’ve walked round this area twice now, and both times I really had a sense of the presence of God. I’m not saying that SE1 doesn’t have any crime, or drugs, or family breakdown, but I sensed God’s love at work here.  The local church (or palace!) is ‘a vital and living part of the metropolis, committed to maintaining a presence’, as it says on the hoardings. Isn’t that what Jesus himself did, going from place to place, being visible to ordinary people and changing their lives?

Next month: February – Romantic, religious ruins