"It all began in the Crypt..."

Canon John Oates Rector from 1984 - 2000

The beginning was obvious when I heard news of the death of John Dudman, a splendid and loyal Guildsman. John was the essential breakthrough in establishing the 8.30am Daily Service in the Crypt. Some had doubted that anyone would turn up but John, Deputy Foreign Editor of the Telegraph, was one of the first. He told me he hadn't been confirmed, quickly took up the offer of talks on the Christian Faith and became a Candidate at the first Confirmation Service to be held in St Bride's since the Church was rebuilt. John left the Telegraph amid the turmoil of new ownership and, shortly afterwards, he and Jean moved to Torquay but John continued his Guildsman duties on Sunday nights, staying at his Club, and coming to the 8.30 on Monday mornings.

Fleet Street was a very different place in 1984, generally more alive in the night than it was in the day. The Rector of St Bride's was Chaplain to the Newspaper Workers Club in Gough Square, which had a Beer and Spirit Licence until 3am! The huge lorries trundled round the narrow streets to deliver their vast rolls of paper during the day and, at night, vans rushed out to the railheads and their special trains to ensure the newspaper was on the breakfast table a few hours later. It was in the back of one of those newspaper vans that Crime Reporter, Guildsman Percy Hoskins, managed to hide Dr Bodkin Adams from competitor newshounds, after he had helped save the doctor from the hangman's noose! At Percy's Memorial Service, we had the Metropolitan Police Band to accompany his favourite hymn, "Onward Christian Soldiers".

1985 was a very difficult year in Fleet Street and environs; many strikes, much news and advertising lost with bitterness, sometimes hatred, and always rumour, growing all the time. The atmosphere was so bad as 1986 began that, on Monday 20th January, I decided to hold an All Night Vigil for the Industry on the following Friday evening. Posters were put up in the Newspaper Workers Club, the Press Club and all the Unions and the newspapers were informed. It was impossible to know whether negotiations between Management and Unions would break down and that, on Friday afternoon, the Sun and News of the World Print Chapels would meet in St Bride's Institute and vote to go on strike. Some Printers who had never before been in St Bride's, came into Church that night. They knew that, in voting to strike, they had voted themselves out of a job: it was an unforgettable night but very important in the modern story of St Bride's. That weekend the four newspapers moved to Wapping.

The Wapping Marches, the departure of the rest of the press, the arrival of financiers, lawyers, coffee and sandwich makers; the weekly Prayer printed in the Sunday and International Express for the Hostages, All Night Vigils for John McCarthy; the Extension Appeal; the Princess of Wales: the tragedies of so many young journalists and photojournalists killed in gathering the news; the development of the Choir under Robert Jones; our amazing school in Zimbabwe; the Institute - an exercise in timing, enabling restoration, an assured future and a Theatre of quality.

Such were the headlines but they all had their origins in the Crypt of which I wrote at the beginning and about which I write at the end, for that was the powerhouse for me as well as for so many others. It was where a Churchwarden came one morning with his family. I hoped they were celebrating an Anniversary; alas, they were there because of news that their eldest son and brother had been killed on the ski slopes: it was where a father came when, in an emergency, he had to deliver his own baby daughter and, having rushed mother and daughter safely to St Thomas's, he felt he "had to come and give thanks to God". There were many others who, like me, found it a haven of peace and light.

Fifteen years, just one hundredth of the fifteen hundred years of worship in the life of St Bride's, Fleet Street... And now another chapter under the leadership of David Meara. Thanks be to God, "All is Well".