“She’s a very good Christian soul, but not the dynamic person the organisation needs,” the Rev Simon Grigg booms on the phone as I arrive. The ebullient rector of London’s St Paul’s church, Covent Garden, fondly known as the Actors’ church, carries himself as much like an impresario as a priest. “It has been said,” he admits. Following a pre-ordination career as a director and stage manager, nabbing this gig in 2006, he says, was a “bit of a dream come true”. Faith and pizzazz are unexpectedly aligned at St Paul’s, a supportive presence in London’s theatre industry.
