A church in London that takes its lead from God

This mission statement is posted outside St Paul’s Church, West Hackney, London  

WELCOME TO ST PAUL'S WEST HACKNEY

We are a community of folk who are single, married, partnered, divorced, widowed, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, cisgender, intersex, gender fluid, not quite sure, rich, poor and penniless.

Some of us are wailing babies and are others excited toddlers. Some of us are a bit north of 60 and haven't quite grown up and some of us are in our teens and often feel like we’re growing up too fast. We are wheelchair users, runners, walkers and amblers. Sometimes we stumble and fall and when we do, we try and help each other up again.

Some of us sing like Mel Tormé whilst others of us are happy just to growl quietly to ourselves. Some of us have come to browse, some have just woken up and some have just been released from prison.

Some of us attend church more than the Archbishop of Canterbury and some of us haven’t darkened the doors of a church since we were on the way home from that Christmas party ten years ago. Some of us are here because our mother is visiting for the weekend and it's more than our lives are worth not to go to church with her and look as though we’re having something that bears a passing resemblance to a good time.

Some of us find the whole idea of God a bit odd, have been damaged by religion, were force-fed religion as children or have wound up here by mistake. Some of us could use a prayer right now, have screwed up monumentally and would like to light a candle but don't quite know why or to whom. A goodly number of us aren’t what you might call ‘exactly struck’ on organised religion.

Some of us are inked, pierced or both. Some are in recovery and others are still addicted. Some of us work too hard, some don't work, can't work, can't spell and feel like we’re not very good at stuff, when in fact we almost certainly are. Most of us know what it’s like to have problems, to be down in the dumps and, on occasions, to feel angry with God.

Most of us have figured out that you can never really know what’s right for another person and some of us long for some stillness in an often-noisy world, where we can discover the treasure that is within us.

We are a mixture of pilgrims, tourists, migrants, asylum seekers, neighbours, explorers, doubters and those who prefer to travel rather than to arrive. We call ourselves and each other to go about life in as compassionate, generous, collaborative, loving, creative, hospitable and grateful a way as possible.

We believe that the God who called us all into being - however he, she or they may be perceived – welcomes, embraces and loves us all. 

We at St Paul's try, in our own stumbling way, to take our lead from God as we go about welcoming, embracing and loving ourselves and one another.