I GOT stuck on the Victoria Line this week in the searing heat. 

As a pools of water streamed off my brow I was not at all comforted by the announcement over the intercom, “Normal service will resume soon”. 

It seems like there is a lot of that around at the moment.  We are stuck in a hot dark tunnel waiting on national resolution.  

We have a new Prime Minister finally (a vicar’s daughter), but HM Opposition doesn’t seem to have made up its mind. We are still trying to work out what Brexit will mean for us, and meanwhile Boris Johnson is Foreign Secretary! A confusing time to say the least.

Closer to home here in Chingford church life is fast-paced.  Weddings galore, church roof repairs, barbeques, school fetes, hospital visits, the father’s race at school sports day, all mean that Sunday is a nice change of pace!  Even if, over the weekend, several hundred people pass through the doors looking for direction, peace of mind, a challenge, or some space of their own.

In fact, let me confess - such is the pace of things that his column is actually being written by a trainee priest - my name is Robert Church (and yes, I’ve heard all the jokes about my name and chosen profession already).  I am down from Oxford to learn all that Father Andy knows. 

I figured a month would cover it but since I arrived in E4 a few short weeks ago, (and the Rector has been stuck in a tunnel, or so he says), it has been all go.  The pace of things here are only matched by the incessant level of uncertainty in our world.  I’ve heard from a lot of people who have been deeply worried by the tragic news coming from Nice, America, and Turkey.

Whether it is at home or abroad, how busy people’s lives are, or in the pace of events it strikes me how little stability there is for many, how unreliable the future appears, or how far away peace seems to be.

So amid all the busyness and confusion it strikes me as essential to have places we know we can go to find stillness and calm.  There is no point waiting on it to come to you, you have to make it a priority. 

In church this week we were thinking about exactly that, how being busy in our hectic lives must also be balanced with time for stillness and calm.  

A chance to get perspective, to find some critical distance, to hear the beat of a different drum.  After all, without that, all the tasks we rush to complete will become meaningless.  It also seems to me that such moments out of time are especially important right now.

So it is that every morning and evening I find myself, with others, sitting in the calm of the parish church, in still quietude saying our prayers.  A pool of calm contemplation amid the ebb and flow around. 

It is open to all and I hear that if you aren’t completely satisfied the rector will give you your money back.  

And nice as that would be, dear readers, to welcome all of Chingford into the hallowed pews, the truth is that you don’t need to come to church to find something like that kind of space. 

Psychologists of happiness suggest setting aside some time each day wherever you are, to reflect and be thankful for all the good things.  And such space can be found anywhere if you are willing to make it. 

At work, at home, at college, (I seem to remember David Cameron was going to introduce this in schools - until some event overtook him). 

I suspect one could even grab a moment on the Victoria line, while waiting for normal service to resume.