With Canon Ann Easter, Chief Executive of a Charity and Chaplain to the Queen.

I hear that the borough of Croydon is advertising its tours so that people will now be able to have a look at its ‘long, rich and often forgotten history’ which is lovely, isn’t it? I don’t know how many tourists go to Croydon but no doubt this will boost their numbers.
You know that I live in the London Borough of Newham and it’s where most of the Olympics and Paralympics will be held, so we’ve been having tours and viewing points for ages so that people can watch as those amazing buildings take shape.
But I hope that the inhabitants of all the other boroughs aren’t too envious of us and Croydon because, to be honest, the tours don’t go to the best bits of Newham – the colourful markets where I’ve whiled away many a happy Saturday afternoon, or the gas works that became a ski slope which has morphed into a hill now.
I’m not really a sight-seer at all, yet, when I went to Israel on the Radio 2 pilgrimage, it was astonishing to think that we might have been walking on the very same path that a Biblical prophet wandered along once, and that we sailed on the Sea of Galilee which Jesus himself knew well, because of course, for so many, Israel is The Holy Land, capital letters, very important, and a place which many dream of visiting and it was amazing.
But while I would never want to reduce what was so extraordinary that it was almost unreal, I truly believe that all the world – and the Universe that it’s part of - is God’s precious and special creation, and that means that every last concrete or sandy, boggy, grassy or dusty step of it is holy, special and precious, and it’s up to us to look after it and to make the most of it and enjoy it.