St Olave Hart Street

06/09/2026

"Stirring Up Old Coals" - The text of today's sermon on Great Fire Anniversary Weekend, reflecting on the gospel through the lens of our Faith and Fire Discovery Day.

The Great Fire of London, depicted by an unknown painter (1675), as it would have appeared from a boat in the vicinity of Tower Wharf on the...

06/09/2026

05/09/26-Faith & Fire Discovery Day : Science, history and faith meet in the footsteps of Samuel Pepys

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us on Saturday 5th September for our Faith & Fire Discovery Day, marking the anniversary of the Great Fire of London, 360 years ago.

Across St Olave Hart Street, Seething Lane Gardens and All Hallows by the Tower, hundreds of visitors followed in the footsteps of Samuel Pepys and explored the Great Fire from some very different perspectives.

Professor Guillermo Rein and the Hazelab team from Imperial College London brought fire science dramatically to life with live experiments in Seething Lane Gardens, on the site of Pepys’ home, One experiment used a ‘dragon’ to mimic the ‘firedrops’ which Pepys recorded raining down on London. In both churches, children and adults explored Pepys’ eyewitness account of the Great Fire, tried writing in the shorthand he used for his diary, dressed up in Restoration style, investigated how and why fires behave as they do, and reflected on the many different meanings of fire in the Bible and Christian tradition.

But the day was also about the present.

What can the Great Fire teach us about the wildfires experienced by communities around the world today? How can science help us understand fire and protect lives? What helps communities recover after disaster? And what might faith contribute to questions of resilience, responsibility and hope?

St Olave’s survived the Great Fire of 1666 and is the perfect setting to discover that science and faith need not be competing explanations of our world: together they can help us understand it, respond to it and ask what kind of future we want to build.

Our enormous thanks to Professor Rein and Hazelab; our friends at All Hallows by the Tower; everyone who volunteered, demonstrated, welcomed, photographed, walked, talked, experimented, wrote, drew, prayed and took part; and especially to the Scientists in Congregations programme, run by ECLAS, whose generous grant made the project possible.

The flames of 1666 have long gone. The questions they leave behind are still very much alive.

You can read more information about the activities at this link:https://saintolave.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/260905-Handout-Single-Sided-Long.pdf and read the text of some of the display boards in church here:https://saintolave.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Faith-and-Fire-Banners-St-Olave-Hart-Street-LR.pdf

04/09/2026

🔥 Join us tomorrow to celebrate Great Fire Anniversary Weekend at our Faith & Fire Discovery Day!

Explore St Olave Hart Street, All Hallows by the Tower and Seething Lane Gardens — and take a Fire Walk through the neighbourhood of Samuel Pepys.

📅 Saturday 5 September 2026, 12–5pm

Activities take place on a rolling programme, so come when you can and stay as long as you like. Download our welcome leaflet for full details of what to expect:
https://saintolave.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Faith-and-Fire-Welcome-Leaflet.pdf

Fire has shaped our city, our stories and our understanding of the world. Join us to explore the Great Fire of London through history, science and faith. What will you discover?

🔥 See live fire science demonstrations bringing Pepys’ account of the Great Fire to life
📖 Meet Samuel Pepys in his ‘own church’
🎭 Dress up as Samuel and Elizabeth Pepys
✍️ Have a go at the shorthand Pepys used to write his diary
👣 Stand in Pepys’ footsteps and explore churches that survived the Great Fire
🎶 Discover how people responded through songs, sermons and a historic Great Fire Anniversary service book — and help us build a ‘Great Fire’ playlist
🧪 Join the experiment! What does fire mean to you? Pepys famously buried his parmesan — what would you save if you had to flee your home?

Free and open to all — families very welcome.

Supported by St Olave Hart Street, All Hallows by the Tower and ECLAS – Equipping Christian Leaders in an Age of Science.

04/09/2026

Reverend Phillip has been at St John’s College, Durham University, this week, taking part in a two-day conference run by ECLAS – Equipping Christian Leaders in an Age of Science.

We were delighted to receive funding through ECLAS’s ‘Scientists in Congregations’ programme, enabling us to put on our ‘Faith & Fire’ Discovery Day on 5 September and to develop high-quality teaching materials for future school visits to St Olave’s.

https://www.eclasproject.org/eclas-funding-to-support-science-engagement-in-churches-and-colleges/

31/08/2026

It was a great privilege to join with our friends at Sjømannskirken i London yesterday for a special service to remember and give thanks for the life of King Harald V.

29/08/2026

This Sunday 30th August at 11am we will join our friends at Sjømannskirken i London/The Norwegian Church in London for a special service to remember and give thanks for the life of His Majesty King Harald.

The service takes place at: St Olav's Church, 1 St.Olav’s Square, Albion Street, Rotherhithe, London SE16 7JB

28/08/2026

St Olave Hart Street joins our friends at Sjømannskirken i London, the Norwegian Church in London and all the people of Norway in mourning the death of His Majesty King Harald V.

Dedicated to St Olav, King and Patron Saint of Norway, our church has cherished its friendship with Norway and the Norwegian people across many centuries.

We give thanks for King Harald’s long life and service to the people of Norway, and pray for Queen Sonja, King Haakon VIII, Queen Mette-Marit and all the Royal Family, and for the people of Norway at this time of national mourning.

May King Harald rest in peace and rise in glory.

Visit Norway Sjømannskirken i London Diocese of London St Paul's Cathedral The Church of England

27/08/2026

A lovely film made by students at the London Film School about our wonderful bellringers and the ringers at Great St Bart's too:

24/08/2026

11/08/2026

Canon Peter Doll from Norwich Cathedral has shared this blog post with us written by Bishop Erik Varden (RC Bishop of Trondheim and former Abbot of Mount St Bernard's) on the translation of Olaf's relics - and how his ruddy cheeks are a pledge of our faith in the resurrection of the flesh:

The sight of Olav’s red cheeks a year and five days after he had been killed at Stiklestad came to symbolise the fact that God’s grace in Christ, when it is readily, freely, and intelligently received, transforms even a person’s physique from within, as a pledge of our faith in the resurrectio...