For days it has been a makeshift warehouse for the relief effort, a place of shelter for the traumatised, destitute and grieving and a focal point for visiting dignitaries and politicians. On Sunday, in the forbidding shadow of Grenfell Tower, the church of St Clements and St James became a place of worship once more.

Local residents and people from elsewhere in London gathered to hug each other in welcome, children on their way to Sunday school laughed and babies cried in their parents’ arms.

But the floral tributes wilting in the sun, the pictures of the missing tied to the church railings outside and the presence of the visitors, the London mayor Sadiq Khan, his wife and the Bishop of Kensington, Graham Tomlin, marked why this Sunday mass was different and would perhaps never be the same again.

On the streets nearby the anger of the days before had turned to an eery quiet. Small knots of people gathered at corners beneath the tower, around the edges of the police cordon, staring up at its gaping windows and charred exterior, still in disbelief.

“It is quiet, it is calm today,” said Hamza Bayezidi, who lives opposite the tower. “It is silent. I find I want to go out away from here, so that I don’t see it all the time. I find it very difficult just seeing it there all the time over us.”



That quiet was reflected inside St Clements Church, which all week has been the bustling, noisy receiving centre for supplies and donations, a support facility for emergency crews and distraught residents of Grenfell Tower and a focal point for the national and international media.

Cleared of the boxes of relief, on Sunday it was a place of calm as the congregation stood for two minutes of silent prayer for the dead, the grieving, the evacuees and the those who still remain in the agony of not knowing whether their relatives are living or dead.

But when Father Robert Thompson, the curate of St Clements and a local Labour councillor, stood to deliver the sermon, the anger, this time crystallised and controlled, was there once more.

Quoting Thomas Cranmer’s words that “in the midst of life we are in death”, Thompson said of his church: “This place speaks so rawly and clearly of the proximity of life and death. As we sit at the foot of Grenfell Tower, which has been described by some as a gigantic tomb, we reflect on the many who have lost their lives, who have had them taken away so quickly, so horrendously and, as we now know, so needlessly”.

The last week had shown the connectedness of human society, in the “most extraordinary outpouring of human solidarity in the face of catastrophe,” he said. But it had also shown what was missing from culture and society.

“The poorest people of this area don’t feel listened to this week or in previous years,” said Thompson. “Some people it seems are just excess debris for our neoliberal, unequal, individualistic, capitalist and consumerist culture.”

In the church which had born witness to the visit of prime minister Theresa May – 24 hours after she had been criticised for not talking to residents when she first visited the scene – Thompson said the last six days had shown the importance of face to face communication and connectedness.

It was that face to face communication, he said, which had been “sadly lacking by those in power this week.”

Addressing what he said was the violence which had been exhibited in some areas on the streets of the community in the past few days, Thompson said it was the product of much anger – an anger he felt.

“But the violence of the political and economic system is one that is just as prevalent. Violence that is perpetrated by the ruling class on our community is just as, if not more, problematic than the anger that has found physical manifestation on the streets of our community.”

In the moments that followed each member of the congregation rose to collect candles to light and place in sandboxes around the church and within the chapel, in memory of those who have died.

As he left the church after more than two hours, having spent time speaking to many members of the congregation as well as other residents who went into the church to see him after the service, the mayor said it had been a humbling experience.

He paid tribute to the community for its resilience but said a feeling of anger remains, not simply at the poor response in the days afterwards from the council and the government, but from the years of neglect from the council and successive governments.

Families who have lost their homes must be supported, he added, grieving people must be helped and lessons must be learned following the tragedy.

“As the mayor of London I will do my bit to be the advocate, to be the fighter, and to be the champion of these people.”