Welcome

Each year thousands of people come together at St Ethelburga’s. They reflect London’s incredible diversity and come from many countries to share stories, skills and insights about how we can make the world a more peaceful place.

Our own story of destruction and rebuilding symbolises how the ruins of conflict can be transformed into a dynamic new creation.

St Ethelburga’s is not just a building - it’s a growing community of people supporting each other and learning how to build relationships across divisions of conflict, culture and religion in their own situations.

St Ethelburga (of Barking) was the visionary leader of the first religious order for women in England, committed to social action to the point of self-sacrifice.

Our building has been a place of hospitality and peace since the 12th Century, but our story is one of continuous change, mirroring many changes in the church and the City of London.

Rebuilding St Ethelburga’s after it was destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1993 was inspired by a vision of a new kind of place. A place in which people divided by conflict, culture or religion could meet and listen to each others’ stories.

In 2006 we created The Tent - a unique, private space in which people from different backgrounds meet as equals.

Our story continues as St Ethelburga’s work grows beyond the building…