'Unashamedly Charismatic Evangelical'

That was how the Rector, Jolyon Bradshaw described St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey - and he wasn't exaggerating!

For my wife and me, married at St Mary's 36 years ago, going back was a bit of a culture shock! From the outside, little had changed. St Mary's front door still opens straight onto the narrow pavement in Bermondsey Street, where we crowded for the wedding photos... the churchyard at the back looks pretty much the same, as does the basic structure inside - the 17th century reredos ('after Grinling Gibbons'), stone columns, Victorian pulpit, wooden pews, balconies and memorials on the walls.

But there the similarity ends. In 1963 St Mary's was 'middle to high' church with an atmosphere that said "religion's a serious business!". Today bright banners decorate the columns...there are posters on the walls...worship is noisy, informal and responsive. Today's style and atmosphere seem to shout 'be joyful!" St Mary's is now the only church in a parish that also claims St Olave, St John and St Luke as its patronal saints. The other churches have long gone. The first St Mary's was a 13th century monastery chapel. Parts of a later building, probably 15th century, form part of the 17th century building which is there today.

The parish itself is a crowded mix of council estates, housing association and private homes stretching either side of Tower Bridge Road between the river and the Old Kent Road. Once Bermondsey was a tight-knit community with plenty of local jobs, in riverside wharves and manufacturing. But today there are no large employers left and what jobs there are tend to be either high-tech or low-pay! Riverside warehouses have gone to make way for 'des-res' homes for 'in-comers' who can afford them. They contrast with the Council estates, where most tenants are either unemployed, lone parents or low-wage earners. As one local resident said "once working class, Bermondsey is now 'upper working class' or unemployed!" The result has been a loss of 'community' and a falling, mobile population, where about 15% change addresses every year and people often don't know the person next door. So how does St Mary's minister in this polarised community? Part of its strategy appears to be to make 'church' one of the bright spots of the week - it was certainly lively, friendly and noisy!

Churchwarden Susan Dobson has been going to St Mary's for about 9 years. She told me "We have a good mix of ages and cultural backgrounds. We don't have a lot of teenagers but we do get a lot of children". That was obvious at the Family Service where the 60 or so adults were outnumbered! According to the Rector, Jolyon Bradshaw, the 'average' worshipper at St Mary's is a thirty-something mother with 3 or 4 children and because of the mobility of the area, about one in six will move on every year.

There is a Holy Communion service every Sunday, usually at 10.30am. On the first Sunday of the month it moves to 6.30pm to make way for an All Age non-eucharistic service in the morning and on the 4th Sunday when the 10.30 service is Morning Prayer. There is mid-week morning prayer in church twice a week and a communion. We went to two services at St Mary's - an all age service and a communion. To be truthful there wasn't a lot of difference between them. In the All Age service the children stayed and took an active part (no 'tokenism' here), whereas about 20 minutes into the communion service they went off to their own activities. St Mary's has its own service book - and there is an element of pick'n mix in the liturgy. The Family Service took bits from the Communion liturgy and the abbreviated ASB Rite A Communion, tailored to be responsive, included some apparently home-grown bits. There is an organ but it is little used nowadays. St Mary's has a 'flexible' music group (photo above), with two singers every week, a guitarist every other week and an occasional drummer, with hymns and worship songs on an OHP screen. The music was mainly modern chorus songs - Vineyard, Wimber and New Wine - but the group did lead us in a couple of traditional hymns.

Anna Compton (83) and Charlotte Abbott (91) are two of St Mary's veterans (photo below). Anna was baptised at St Mary's and has been a regular all her life. Charlotte came to St Mary's 50 years ago, when she married the organist. Both agreed St Mary's had changed "I miss some of the old hymns and the quiet" said Anna - but "we wouldn't go to any other church". The evangelical style began with Jolyon Bradshaw's predecessor, Tim Wooderson, who Jolyon said was "a high church, charismatic evangelical". "I've just carried it on - and probably 'lowered' it a bit!" "In the inner cities people are attracted by a distinctive style of worship - if it doesn't suit they move a few hundred yards to another church. We gained a reputation as a 'family' church and that has drawn more families to us."

St Mary's style also means bible-based, almost fundamentalist, teaching, offering certainties to people living in a very uncertain world. Typically, when LGCM held their service at Southwark Cathedral a couple of years back, St Mary's hosted a meeting 'to pray about the gay issue'.

"I have enormous sympathy for a person who prefers his or her own sex because for a Christian I believe that it involves celibacy, and that is hard. I do not think that practising homosexuality is an option for someone in Christian ministry" Jolyon explained.

Jolyon (below) has been Rector for ten years - which seems to be the average stay at St Mary's. He leads a team including curate, Marion Trask, whose husband Ashley is a Reader. Until recently Ashley was also London City Missioner there, but has now taken on a new post as a Chaplain at the Millennium Dome. Former churchwarden Peter Hopper was ordained as an OLM at Michaelmas and divides his time between St Mary's and his 'day-job' in Southwark Council's local housing office. They also have Clair Cooke, Youth Pastor, who co-ordinates the children and youth work, and St Mary's is the base church for the Rev. Benny Hazlehurst, Estates Outreach Worker for Southwark Archdeaconry. The churchwardens and several congregation members are very much part of the team and play a major part in the worship and parish ministry. For a parish in a deprived area, they seem well resourced.

"Fortunately we have historic reserves which keep us going" said Jolyon "Otherwise we would have problems. It's a large church and it costs to keep it in good order, for example we replaced the roof and re-rendered seven years ago and fairly recently we built Sunday School rooms upstairs and downstairs". Susan Dobson told me "We used to have a lot of business and professional people, but they have gone and a lot of our weekly income has gone with them!"

"A number moved to Haddon Hall, the local Baptist Centre, when Steve Chalke moved there" said Jolyon. "But as a result we've moved from a church dominated by the 'upwardly mobile' back to being a church run by and for local people."

That meant empowering and encouraging people who weren't used to leadership roles - people like Peter Hopper, who went on to ordained local ministry and Dave Herbert also a former churchwarden, now studying for ministry at a Bible College.

"However, we still have a problem finding more leaders, for example to carry people on from the Alpha Course" said Jolyon.

Nevertheless there is always a lot going on and somehow always enough willing hands. On Sunday mornings there are five young people's groups (from toddlers to teenagers) plus a creche. There are teenagers, running the sound system and helping with Sunday School. There are mum & toddler coffee mornings, bible study and house groups and very lively Tuesday and Thursday evening youth groups - football and teaching in the south aisle. That was partitioned off some years back to provide a meeting room, toilets and a tea bar for activities and after-service fellowship.

Youth Pastor Clair Cooke and children at the All Age Service

"We could do with a church hall" said Jolyon (the one-time church hall on a nearby estate was handed over to the local council twelve years or so back). There's a parish weekend in Norfolk coming up - 30-plus adults and over 40 children off to Letton Hall for "teaching and community building". The parish supports two CMS missionaries in Tanzania and a local centre for the homeless.

"The impression I had when I came was of a parish in need but with a tremendous amount to offer" said Jolyon "and experience has borne this out." Thinking about it, the key to St Mary's success is perhaps one word, 'family' - it's a church family and a family church - and if going back after 36 years was a bit strange, it was also a pleasure to be part of that family for a few hours.