Fuellers Sunday

Sunday 3 November 2024

The Master[-elect], Elena Oderstone invites you to join her for Fuellers Sunday.
This will start with a Celebration Afternoon Tea near St Paul's Cathedral before we move to St Andrew by the Wardrobe, which is the first Grade I listed church in the whole of London to go fully carbon neutral following extensive renovations.

Details for the day are below and you are encouraged to book early and bring friends and family and enjoy the company of fellow Fuellers!

• Alderman & Canon Alison Gowman CBE: Alison is the City Corporation's lead member for climate action biodiversity and urban greening. She was a founding Director of the Green Finance Institute and promotes green finance. She founded and chairs the Livery Climate Action Group that is addressing climate issues and net zero with 105 Livery Company and related members.
• The Ven Luke Miller: Luke is the Archdeacon of London and Prolocutor of the Convocation of Canterbury.  He is London Area Chaplain for the Sea Cadets,  Faith & Belief lead for London Resilience and Chaplain to HM The King.
• The Revd Nick Mottershead FCA:  Nick is steward of the largest City church in a large benefice covering Christ church Greyfriars and St Leonard, Foster Lane, that includes 6 major green spaces with a broad range of associated vested rights.  He founded GenerosCity, which addresses hygiene poverty in the City and beyond. He is Honorary Chaplain of the Fuellers.

St Andrew by the Wardrobe is the first Carbon Net Zero Church in the City and one of the first grade one listed churches in the country to achieve CNZ. A recent refurbishment project has regenerated the historic Parish and Ward Church of St Andrew by the Wardrobe in partnership with the London Diocese of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church. The church is a busy centre for worship for two Christian communities offering wider community activities, and providing an oasis of calm in the heart of the City of London.

There is evidence of a church on this site from the time of William the Conqueror. The church was previously known as St Andrew’s juxta Baynard’s Castle, and Its current name dates from the 14th century and was derived from its proximity to Edward III’s Great Wardrobe. The medieval church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 and rebuilt by Christopher Wren. It was again restored in 1685 - 95 to Wren’s design, but subtly altered in the mid 20th Century after being gutted during the Blitz. The interior features extensive wood panelling of a very high quality not achieved in other post-war restorations. (As St Andrew’s was the last to be restored it benefited from the gathering economic recovery.) The church also contains items relocated from a number of lost City churches, and a 15th century bell from a church in Herefordshire which is located in the north churchyard. Shakespeare was a member of the parish and is celebrated in a carved wooden memorial in the church, with another to lutenist John Dowland. The portrait painter Anthony van Dyke lived here and for many years the front page of the Times proclaimed: “Printed in the Parish of St Andrew by the Wardrobe”.

A new existential threat arose when the 1950s repairs and essential services came to the end of their life, putting the building at risk, but providing a new opportunity for a third regeneration to revitalise St Andrew’s as the first carbon net zero church in the City of London and a trailblazer for the “greening” of heritage buildings. The church continues to contribute to the richness of City life in the challenges of the 21st century, including diversity and climate change, and the age old need of humanity to find its meaning joy and purpose in God the Creator of all.

The church interior during restoration works (above) and as it is now (below)

MUSIC

Michael Keeley won a scholarship to The Cathedral School in Salisbury where he sang as a chorister before attending Bishop Wordsworth Grammar School.  After studying music at Goldsmith’s College, London, he completed his teacher training at Birmingham University.  In 1990 he became Assistant Director of Music at The Godolphin School in Salisbury where he taught for three years.  Michael was appointed as Director of Music at More House School, Knightsbridge in 1993 and promoted to Co-Head in 2018.  He was an Assistant Vicar Choral in the choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral from 1994 to 2011 and continues to sing at St Paul’s as his teaching commitments allow.

Sarum Impromptu formed in 1984 in response to the 'Feed the World' Band Aid famine appeal. The first concert took place in All Saints Church, Whiteparish in the same year, with one or its members just eleven years old at the time. As the name 'Sarum' suggests, most of the group have strong links with Salisbury. The 'Impromptu' nature of the group has persisted, with occasional concerts still the order of the day, as time allows. Members of the group have gone on to follow careers as diverse as clinical psychology and musicology.

• 1445        Arrive at Lost Property Hotel
• 1500        Celebration Afternoon Tea
• 1700        Evensong with Conversation on Sustainability

DRESS CODE
Lounge suits / jacket & tie, Livery Badges

BOOKING DEADLINE
Please book your places by Wednesday 30 October.

LOCATION - AFTERNOON TEA
Lost Property Hotel, 3-5 Ludgate Hill, London EC4M 7AA
View location

LOCATION - EVENSONG & CONVERSATION
St Andrew by the Wardrobe, St Andrew's Hill, Queen Victoria St, London EC4V 5DE
View location