All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friends,

The three days leading up to Ascension Day in this coming week are called Rogation Days: from the Latin "to ask."

Traditionally, they are days of prayer for blessing on the harvest of land and sea.

A church set in a city centre, whose courtyard is one of the few green spaces, like the lives of most city-dwellers, can seem very detached from the people who produce our food and the processes by which it comes to us.

The recent horsemeat scandal has revealed a dark side to the way food is provided.

In these days, we also pray for business and commerce. Our parish has long been a centre of the "rag trade" – now called the "fashion industry." The London Fashion Centre is in Eastcastle Street.

The recent tragedy in Bangladesh in which hundreds of clothing workers died reminds us sharply of the human cost of the low-priced garments on sale in many of the Oxford Street shops.

This Sunday, we hear of the conversion of Lydia, a dealer in purple goods: the luxury end of the fashion trade then; more Bond Street than Oxford Street.

We should pray for the conversion of food and fashion industries to decent and fair practices. But can we do that without praying for our own conversion to "fair trade" in these areas of life?

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Alan Moses