THE prophet Isaiah saw that those that waited for the Lord would renew their strength, “walk and never faint”, but clergy in need of an additional earthly boost may direct their footsteps to St Anne’s, Soho, in London, where the coffee shop is offering a reduction to clergy within the post-Christmas slump.
Sacred Grounds, which opened in January 2024 next to the doorway to St Anne’s on Dean Street in Soho, is offering clergy 20 per cent of all hot drinks throughout January. Valid types of ID listed on the flyer include a clerical collar, “lingering aroma of incense”, and “scratch marks from parishioners”.
The Rector of St Anne’s, the Revd Simon Buckley, said this week: “I do know from personal experience how wonderful, but in addition exhausting Christmas could be for clergy. The idea of the ‘priestly-pick-up’ got here out of a recognition of that, and that clergy from different denominations are regular customers of Sacred Grounds. We hope it is a method to offer them a little bit of light-hearted TLC within the New Year.”
Sacred Grounds, advertised because the only coffee shop in central London with its own garden, offers (along with food and drinks) a weekly sign-language club and monthly knitting club. The clergy of St Anne’s also hold regular Bible studies, and hosted “Carol-aoke” for the primary time last month. In the past yr, greater than 2000 Bible verses have been taken away by customers from a jar at the doorway.
Funded principally by St Anne’s, the café has also secured a grant and loan from the diocese of London. Its branding, undertaken as a pro-bono project, won a neighborhood design and media company, Wonderhood, a national design award from Creative Review.
