Weaving connections: a church at both ends of the road

What we have seen since Kent has been provocative, challenging, comforting and inspiring. We have spent the last three days in the company of the pocket dynamo that is the Reverend Lord Andrew Mawson.

After the first day I have to say that I wasn't quite sure what to think. We had spent our time in Tower Hamlets, a place of depressed housing estates separated by St Paul's Way. At one end of the street, a Roman Catholic church; at the other, a Church of England. What was immediately apparent was the level of building activity going on in this street: new high-rise apartments, plus the finishing touches to a brand new school, and a new health centre. Much, if not all, of this activity has sprung from the creative relationships Andrew Mawson has formed in this street. The vital new school replaces the old with its culture of mediocrity; the doctors' surgery is staffed by enthusiastic and committed practitioners; the local pharmacist Atul Patel, together with Andrew, has been a driving force for change.

There is much happening in St Paul's Way which is inspiring. At the same time there are questions, particularly in relation to the role of the churches. What have they contributed to this radical change? At first glance, very little indeed. To this point, the Catholics have stood by and watched. The Anglicans have at least joined in the conversation but their church doors (proudly bannered "The Gate of Heaven") remain closed and uninviting and rubbish adorns their porch and their footpath. Inside, their church is quite spectacular, although somewhat dark and confused. But why should anyone from the local community enter their doors (if they can find a way in) when this church has yet to join with the community in its renewal?

Where Andrew began his conversation with us was where I had hoped he would - theology. "The Word became flesh and lived among us." Incarnation is the fundamental truth behind the desire to make a difference in this place - to become a living sign of the reality that God dwells among us in human form.

Andrew's second point is that God chose to address the macro problems of this world in the most micro way possible. Jesus came as one person to enter into relationships with other people. The stories he told and the acts he performed were all about simple interactions between real human beings. And from those micro miracles, the example of how to address the macro needs of the world was given. St Paul's Way is full of simple human encounters which have the potential to change the world of Tower Hamlets.