Mystery Worshipper: Cool Dude
Church:
St Mark’s, St John’s Wood
Location: London, England
Date of visit: Sunday, 27 April 2025, 10:30am
The building
On the night of 26 January 2023, this church burned ferociously, and what is left today of the 1847 building is just the walls and the lofty tower and spire. It took the fire brigade all night and some of the next day to extinguish the embers and almost nothing survived inside the walls where there was once a lofty and handsome church. Most of the fittings and stained glass were lost. So, dear reader, your Mystery Worshipper attended a service in the church hall adjacent, which looks like a 1950s pre-cast concrete structure, and has become the temporary home of the worshipping community at St Marks. Although hard by the church, the hall miraculously survived the conflagration, though its roof was damaged by the the fire hoses and heat. The interior of the hall still shows signs of temporary patch repairs from that experience. The hall is used for community events as well as a worship space and some silver helium filled balloons – presumably left over from a children’s party and too high to remove in the party clear-up – lurked high in the roof, looking down on us like modern day angels. A table had been set up as an altar, complete with six candles and chairs laid out.
The church
In the face of the conflagration the parish showed prodigious determination. They almost immediately resolved to rebuild and not to leave the site, even worshipping in the open air for a few weeks until the church hall was repaired and the walls of the burnt church checked for stability. With the promise of insurance payouts and after a community consultation on what a new church on the site might be like and what it might offer to the area there is – two years on from the fire – talk of being ready to commission architects to start designing something on the site. The parish has a range of activities, maintained from their temporary accommodation, including three services a week, a reading group, and an Encounter prayer group, while the hall is used for community activities when not in use as a worship space.
The neighborhood
This part of St John’s Wood is part of an extensive suburb of large classical villas built between 1820 and 1840 on farmland. St Mark’s arose as the suburb was completed to serve its new inhabitants. The surrounding villas were divided into flats in the early 20th century, but most have now been reunified as mansions again. So the area is today distinctly posh, going on plutocratic. The wide, tree-lined streets and gleaming white houses make for a pleasant walk to church, though the trees do rather mask the church spire which would otherwise be a prominent local landmark, towering over the villas. Do the residents of the impressive houses worship at St Mark’s as their Victorian predecessors did? I may be wrong but I suspect not; indeed, I think many of them have the means to flee the city at the weekend for their country homes and are not even in the area.
The cast
The vicar presided, and with her was a server/ thurifer, a scratch choir of four, and an organist, especially for St Mark’s Day. Two readings were read by members of the congregation.
What was the name of the service?
Parish Mass.How full was the building?
About 20. There was a fairly wide range of ages and backgrounds.
Did anyone welcome you personally?
No. There were sign on the hoarding around the burned church (see church details, above) but the door to the hall is set back, and is therefore far from obvious. Once found, there were welcome WCs immediately inside (as there are so often in church halls) and I was grateful for them. There was nobody on duty at the back of the hall, so we helped ourselves from the piles and a lady asked me what we needed, thinking I might be able to advise her.
Was your pew comfortable?
A modern stackable chair which suited my shape well. Several latecomers took chairs from the stack and added them to the back row, when there were empty seats near the front. In England we tend to be shy of sitting at the front in church. I wonder why this is? I sometimes think it must be a bit lonely for the clergy.
How would you describe the pre-service atmosphere?
It was busy as people got ready for the mass and chatted – though nobody chatted to me.
What were the exact opening words of the service?
The first line of the opening hymn was, ‘Come sing, ye choirs exultant’, though we took the first verse to find our voices. But by the last verse we had done so, and were making a decent sound for a small congregation.
What books did the congregation use during the service?
The New English Hymnal, a sheet with two hymns that are not in the hymnal, and a service booklet, with various services for Lent and Easter bound in one. The booklet was comprehensive, so I found it confusing to locate the service we were at within its pages. When I realised we were sticking to Common Worship I managed without the booklet and my memory (mostly) sufficed.
What musical instruments were played?
Electric keyboard on the hall stage, competently played from behind a little screen. It suited the low-ceiling acoustic of the hall.
Did anything distract you?
A man sitting at the back texted furiously on his phone, ignoring the mass. He promptly left before we took communion and I wondered why he came at all. He was a passing distraction until I tuned him out.
Was the worship stiff-upper-lip, happy clappy, or what?
A modern catholic parish mass adapted for the ad hoc setting and space. Incense was used and as its was St Mark’s day, their patronal festival, they had a scratch choir of four who sang the mass setting. The small trestle table that was doing service as our altar looked a little cramped as it had to accommodate six candles and the vicar’s iPad, as well as eucharistic elements. At the Gospel, the iPad displaying the text was reverently censed, which brought a smile to my face. But why not? It is a gesture, not alchemy.
Exactly how long was the sermon?
9 minutes.
On a scale of 1-10, how good was the preacher?
7 — The vicar used a stick to walk and preached sitting down – I guess as a result of an injury. I assume the desk adjacent would have been used usually for preaching, but today she spoke to us peering between the six tall candlesticks on the altar. We heard her perfectly, however.
In a nutshell, what was the sermon about?
She preached on Mark. The authorship of the Gospel is not definite. If it was written by Mark, the companion of St Peter, there are gaps in his biography, and the way his Gospel slightly runs out of steam, ending at the empty tomb, suggests the version we have today may be unfinished. She concluded with the idea that, whatever the gaps and mysteries of the author's story, Mark’s entirely adequate monument on earth is his enduring Gospel.
Which part of the service was like being in heaven?
The stoicism of the parish in the face of the devastation of the burning of their church and the adaptation of the mass to its reduced setting.
And which part was like being in... er... the other place?
The busy thumbs of the texter, until he left.
What happened when you hung around after the service looking lost?
There was a stand-up parish lunch after the service, which was set out immediately after the mass, which encouraged many to stay. I chatted to two members of the congregation and the vicar, and the atmosphere was convivial and welcoming.
How would you describe the after-service coffee?
There were coffee mugs set out, presumably for after lunch coffee, but I didn’t sample it.
How would you feel about making another visit (where 10 = ecstatic, 0 = terminal)?
5 — It’s the wrong side of London for me or I might, in order to support the parish.
Did the service make you feel glad to be a Christian?
Yes.
What one thing will you remember about all this in seven days' time ?
The resolve of the parish in the face of adversity.