Over the years in London we have met people from all over the world. London (pre-Covid) has been likened to an International Airport, with people from the world crossing one another's paths in most unlikely combinations.
Like other London churches, we often celebrate this by displaying or talking about national flags. Let me reflect on some we have thought about over the years.
One thing about flags is that you cannot tell how interesting they are by how they look. Some sophisticated-looking flags have little story and others that look thoroughly uninteresting - like this one - are a story that needs to be told.
What we loved about this flag is that it has a Christian connotation without intending one. The story goes - and as it is a 700 year old story it is not fact-checkable - that the flag derives from a sheet on which a warrior's body was laid when bleeding. The white representing the body, the crimson the blood.
And we thought about it in the context of Communion.
Communion, where we might sing the words of Isaac Watts (though this verse from 'When I survey the wondrous cross' is rarely sung)
His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o'er hi body on the tree;
Then am I dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.
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