Star Over London

Sorry you missed me on Holy Island. I shared in a London church's annual festival of their patron, Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus to you, me and the marketeers). The people of this church - St. Nicholas Perivale -are the salt of the earth. The building links an industrial area with a housing area. There are a few white and brown faces in the church, but most are black. I pushed my way through an Oxford Street crammed with shoppers and bought a Christmas star from Selfridges. This I presented to the church with these words: 'We come from an exploding star. We are made of star dust. Each person is a star. Our job is to help each star shine'.

The Church of England Diocese of London has a campaign to 'Build the City'. I asked my Perivale friends if they could best build the city by being like Jerusalem or Bethlehem. I suggested God would guide them as clearly as a star to build an ever-growing family among the ordinary 'straw' of life - to be a Bethlehem kind of place in London. Pray for them.