The Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, hosted a special Bishop’s Garden Shabbat last Saturday to give members of the South London Liberal Synagogue (SLLS) the chance to meet and pray together in person for the first time in 16 months.

The Bishop’s residence is only a five-minute walk from the synagogue and he says he was “honoured to welcome our friends and neighbours” after being asked for help by South London’s Rabbi Nathan Godleman.

Nathan said: “At a recent council meeting we were discussing the COVID restrictions that mean we can’t run normal services in our building currently, when garden services were mentioned as an alternative.

“It then occurred to me that the Bishop had a big garden! I asked him if he would host us, which he was happy to do, leaving up a tent used earlier in the week for an ordination.

“People were delighted to see each other in person after all this time and the setting, along with the presence of Bishop Christopher, helped make it a very special day indeed.”

The service was also attended the Bishop’s Chaplain, the Revd Dr Alun Ford, as well as Baroness Merron, the former Chief Executive of the Board of Deputies and a member of SLLS.

After the event, the community presented the Bishop and Chaplain with gifts including a bottle of Iona gin, a pair of holy socks – with a verse from the Hebrew Bible – and a copy of the Liberal Judaism Siddur.

Liberal Judaism Chief Executive Rabbi Charley Baginsky said: “It is wonderful that Liberal Judaism could be involved in this. Interfaith relations have always been central to our movement and this is the perfect example of how they benefit us all. I am now looking forward to the time when we can invite our neighbours from other faiths back into our communities.”