St Saviours Deaf and Deaf Blind Church

Went with the Mayor (Mike Elliott) to the St Savours Deaf and Deaf Blind Chapel and Centre in Old Oak Road in East Acton (ironically next to the previously proposed site for the Old Oak Surgery - see yesterday). This was for the ‘commissioning’ of Rev Anne Richardson as Chaplain amongst Deaf and Deaf blind people in the Diocese of London.

St Saviours was originally founded in Oxford Street in 1875 as the first deaf church in Britain, and moved to Acton in 1924 under the aegis of the Royal Association for Deaf People (RAD). You can read more of the history of RAD and St Saviours at http://www.royaldeaf.org.uk/page.php?id=100133 The Acton St Saviours was one of the first churches designed by the famous architect Sir Edward Maufe, later architect of Guildford Cathedral and the architecturally important local St Thomas church in Boston Road Hanwell.

Downstairs at St Saviours is a social club and administrative centre for RAD, and also serves as the polling station for the Acton Vale area. Upstairs is the lovely chapel, in which I held the first civic service for the deaf in my year as Millennium Mayor. The chapel is built with a sloping floor, so that the congregation can see the signing from the preacher and choir.

The sermon signed by Fr Fletcher

The formal commissioning of Anne (who is actually a fellow Methodist) was conducted by the Bishop of Willesden, Pete Broadbent. I’ve known ‘Bishop Pete’ (as everyone calls him) since the 1980s, when he was a Borough Councillor in Islington and we met at London-wide Councillor events. The service was a really warm and friendly occasion, with a sermon in British Sign Language from a deaf Jesuit priest Fr Paul Fletcher, and wonderfully expressive signing of hymns by both choir and congregation. It was also nice to meet again and be remembered by many of the congregation who I met on my previous visits as Mayor or local Councillor.