One of the churches we visited while in London was St Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square. The vicar of St Martin's is Sam Wells, who was dean of Duke Chapel from 2005 to 2012.
St Martin's is such a vibrant and contrasting place. In the middle of the most bustling part of the modern city, you enter its doors and are immediately met with reverent quiet and wonder. Here the sacred is literally just a few steps from the secular.
It is the meeting of sacred and secular that makes St Martin's as dynamic and relevant a church as I know. The sanctuary is just that -- a sanctuary and refuge for religious pilgrims, weary tourists, and homeless neighbors all alike. The church crypt has been converted into a cafe, serving local and sustainably-grown food amidst two galleries -- one a photo exhibit giving face and voice to the homeless community and the other an art exhibit done collaboratively by both Christian and Muslim youth.
This is church.
One image which for me really captured the whole spirit of St Martin's is a photo I took of a statue set near the rear of the sanctuary. In the days of Apartheid in South Africa, St Martin's was an outpost of strong anti-apartheid protest, as the church set very near the the then South African embassy. The statue by Chaim Stephenson is called "Victims of Injustice and Violence" and was dedicated in 1994 by none other than Desmond Tutu himself. It is an image of one man carrying another, intentionally reminiscent of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, wherein the wellbeing of a suffering and mistreated man is looked after by another, foreign man -- the Samaritan.
I love the photo because in the background to the left is St Martin's pulpit, and then to the right two homeless men sleeping in the church pews, while in the center foreground there is the statue. In other words, there is there on the left the pulpit -- the symbol of the Word which tells us to love God and love our neighbor, and then there is on the right the neighbor, and then in the center the two becoming one.
All are becoming one in this great church of St Martin in the Fields. The sacred and the secular, the Christian and the Muslim, the Jew and the Gentile, the church and its neighborhood, the church and the whole world.
As I leave I cannot help but think of Jesus' words at the end of the Parable of the Good Samaritan: "Go and do likewise."
Postscript:
For any of you who are fans of the BBC show "Rev.", St Martin in the Fields is the inspiration for Rev Adam Smallbone's church St Savior in the Marshes. And St Martin's is similar to St Savior, except without the alcoholic priest and with a lot more people on Sunday. Cheers.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rev._(TV_series)
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