Life is a bubble

The Rector rarely shies away from a challenge and last month she took on one which has been running for more than two centuries.

Each year the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers returns to St Bride’s to honour one of its most traditional commitments: the Richard Johnson “Bubble” Service.

Our Rector, The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce, serves as Company Chaplain and this year added her voice to a long succession of clergy who have taken on the task of preaching at the service on Johnson’s chosen text, Vita humana bulla est – “Life is a bubble”.

Richard Johnson lived a short and rather poignant life. Born in 1756, he died in 1795 at just 38. A paper merchant by trade, he wrote The Paper Maker and Stationer’s Assistant in 1794 and noted on its flyleaf that any profits should support elderly widows cared for by the Stationers’ Company.

His will went further: he left his estate to be distributed twice a year among “five very poor widows”, and he requested that the Master and Wardens visit St Mary’s, Hendon annually on the anniversary of his father’s death.

There they were to inspect the grave – where Johnson himself was also buried – and to hear a sermon on Vita humana bulla est, and dine together afterwards.

The Company still honours the annual visit to the grave, though the Hendon service and dinner ended in 1917.

The service migrated first to St Martin‑within‑Ludgate and eventually found its home here at St Bride’s, Fleet Street, which now serves as the spiritual home for the Company.

In recent years clergy who have stepped up to the lectern for this unusual commission include The Very Reverend Dr John Hall (former Dean of our patron, Westminster Abbey), The Rt Revd Dr Stephen Platten (former Bishop of Wakefield who also served as Master of the Company) and The Revd Lucy Winkett (Rector of St James’s Piccadilly and stalwart of the Today programme’s Thought for the Day).

St Bride’s Choir has also become part of the tradition by singing what has now become known as the “Bubble Anthem” – an arrangement of the song I’m forever blowing bubbles.

The Company then gathers to share a lunch together and the heart of Johnson’s request endures: a yearly reminder that life is a bubble – and a moment to reflect on what truly matters.

Header Photo: Courtesy of Niki Gorick Photography

Written by Neil Bellingham, Digital Communications, St Bride’s Church