The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, has joined the community of All Hallows by the Tower to give its first live-streamed Eucharist as the City’s oldest church, which pre-dates the Tower of London by 300 years, goes online to in an effort to reach out to the elderly and house bound.

Jessie Morgan, who is over one hundred and who had been a Brownies’ leader at All Hallows in the late 1920s and 1930s, attended the service and was amazed at the new technological developments available to churches.  She said she hoped it would allow more people to connect with a place which had been central to her Christian formation and her life.

All Hallows is the oldest church in the City of London and was founded by the Abbey of Barking in 675AD. Its decision to get online is part of its outreach to those who live too far from the City to attend or are housebound, while also making its services available to the wider cyber community – the church welcomes a large number of civic, memorial and carol services, as well as concerts and other events which can now be enjoyed online. This new technology is part of the church’s commitment to Capital 2020 – the Diocese of London Strategy for serving London in ways that are Confident, Creative and Compassionate.

The church’s new Audio Visual system streams services to both north and south aisles of the church as well as live and recorded online. Funds for the system were kindly contributed by new local hotel, CitizenM and Société Générale as well as by local fundraising, including Vicar Bertrand Olivier running the London Marathon. All Hallows is home to the annual London Marathon Thanksgiving Service and Bertrand has completed an impressive twelve marathons raising over £100,000 for good causes.

The Reverend Bertrand Olivier, Vicar of All Hallows, commented:

“We are very excited at this new development which will allow us to reach new audiences and connect with many people worldwide who have a spiritual attachment to All Hallows”

The service was part of the church’s patronal Festival and was followed by a reception for the many people who contribute to the life of All Hallows – from members of the Wednesday Taizé congregation, volunteer church welcomers and City Guides, members of a number of Livery companies to the Tower ward club, and local business supporters. Also in attendance were artist Jackie Binns, who recently designed a new altar frontal for the church, and Denise Bentley, CEO of the FirstLoveFoundation who run the TowerHamlets Foodbank, one of many charitable projects supported by All Hallows.

During the visit the Bishop also conferred the St Mellitus medal on Ken Marshall, a longstanding churchwarden, who was married at All Hallows 54 years ago and has served the parish in a number of capacities since, and in particular as a much valued Church Warden for 17 years.

You can re-watch the service by visiting the All Hallows site or tune in to watch future services live at http://www.ahbtt.org.uk/live-stream/