St Mary's Church, Islington
Encyclopedia
- For the church with a similar name in Norfolk see St Mary's Church, Islington, NorfolkSt Mary's Church, Islington, NorfolkSt Mary's Church, Islington, Norfolk, is a ruined redundant Anglican church in the civil parish of Tilney St Lawrence, Norfolk, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust...
The Church of St Mary the Virgin is the historic parish church of Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, in the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
Diocese of London
Diocese of London
The Anglican Diocese of London forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England.Historically the diocese covered a large area north of the Thames and bordered the dioceses of Norwich and Lincoln to the north and west. The present diocese covers and 17 London boroughs, covering most of Greater...
. The present parish is a compact area centered on Upper Street between Angel and Highbury Corner, bounded to the west by Liverpool Road, and to the east by Essex Road/Canonbury Road.
History
The first recorded church building was erected in the twelfth century and was replaced in the fifteenth century.Before his consecration as Bishop of St David's in 1509, Edward Vaughan served as vicar.
Robert Browne, who authored the founding principles of Congregationalism
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
, served as Lecturer at St Mary's until around 1578.
William Cave
William Cave
William Cave was an English divine and patristic scholar.-Life:Cave was born at Pickwell, Leicestershire, of which parish his father, John Cave was vicar. He was educated at Oakham School and St. John's College, Cambridge. He took his B.A. degree in 1656, his M.A. in 1660, his D.D. in 1672, and...
became vicar in 1662, at the age of twenty-five, and held the office until 1689. He was subsequently buried at the church, having died in Isleworth in 1713.
On 24 July 1738, the Vicar of St Mary's, George Stonehouse, invited Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley was an English leader of the Methodist movement, son of Anglican clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley, the younger brother of Anglican clergyman John Wesley and Anglican clergyman Samuel Wesley , and father of musician Samuel Wesley, and grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley...
to "take charge of his parish, under him, as his Curate." He did not, however, possess any licence to do so from the Bishop of London. Wesley's journal lists many occasions on which he preached, and his regular praying at the church.
Wesley's preaching proved unpopular for some and within a year he and George Whitefield
George Whitefield
George Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...
were expelled from the pulpit at St Mary's. On 27 April 1739 he noted, "At Islington vestry the Churchwardens forbad my preaching: demanded my local licence. I said nothing but that "I heard them." Scions was very abusive; bidding me shake off the dust of my feet, &c.; and said, "You have all the spirit of the devil," mentioning Mr. Whitefield, Stonehouse, and me by name."
From this point on Wesley joined his brother John
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
and George Whitefield in field-preaching. Following a series of meetings with the Bishop of London, he decided to leave the city and to join his brother in Bristol during August 1739.
A new church building was consecrated on 26 May 1754, designed by Lancelot Dowbiggin
Lancelot Dowbiggin
Lancelot Dowbiggin was an English architect....
.
In 1759, Philip Quaque
Philip Quaque
Philip Quaque was the first African to be ordained as a minister of the Church of England.Born in Cape Coast and named Kweku, he was said to be the son of Birempong Cudjo...
, son of the Fante king Birempong Cudjo, was baptised at St Mary's. He was the first black African to be ordained priest in the Church of England and returned to Ghana to minister as a missionary.
The Revd Daniel Wilson (1778-1858), served as vicar from 1824 until 1832, when he became Bishop of Calcutta
Bishop of Calcutta
The Bishop of Calcutta exercises episcopal leadership over the Diocese of Calcutta of the Church of North India. The diocese was established in 1813 as part of the Church of England and the first bishop was Thomas Fanshawe Middleton and the second Reginald Heber...
. In 1831 he was one of the founders of the Lord's Day Observance Society
Lord's Day Observance Society
Day One Christian Ministries is a Christian organisation based in the United Kingdom that lobbies for no work on Sunday, the day that many Christians celebrate as the Sabbath, a day of rest — a position based on the fourth of the Ten Commandments.Originally founded in 1831 as the Lord's Day...
. The Islington Clerical Conference, founded by Daniel Wilson, ran from 1827-1983 and was held at St Mary's. Wilson's son, also Daniel, served as vicar of the church for fifty-four years, during which time many new parishes were created as the population of Islington soared.
Dr William Haggar Barlow
William Hagger Barlow
The Very Rev William Hagger Barlow DD was the Dean of Peterborough in the Church of England from 1901 until his death in 1908.William Hagger Barlow was born in 1833, son of Henry Hagger, Vicar of Pitsmoor, and educated at St John's College, Cambridge...
became vicar on the death of Daniel Wilson the second. He built the Bishop Wilson Memorial Hall (subsequently rebuilt as St Mary's Neighbourhood Centre) and the vicarage, which is still in use.
The churchyard was enlarged in 1793, but with the rapid growth of Islington was full and closed for burials in 1853. It was laid out as a public garden of one and a half acres in 1885.
F. Donald Coggan
Donald Coggan
Frederick Donald Coggan, Baron Coggan, PC was the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury from 1974 to 1980, during which time he visited Rome and met the Pontiff, in company with Bishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, future Cardinal of England and Wales.-Background:Coggan was born in Highgate, London, England...
, later Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, served as curate from 1934-7. David Sheppard
David Sheppard
David Stuart Sheppard, Baron Sheppard of Liverpool was the high-profile Bishop of Liverpool in the Church of England who played cricket for Sussex and England in his youth...
, later Bishop of Liverpool
Bishop of Liverpool
The Bishop of Liverpool is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Liverpool in the Province of York.The diocese stretches from Southport in the north, to Widnes in the south, and from the River Mersey to Wigan in the east. Its see is in the City of Liverpool at the Cathedral Church of...
, played cricket for England while an assistant curate at Islington, 1955-7.
On the third night of the London Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
, at 10.20pm on 9 September 1940, a bomb destroyed the majority of the church, leaving only the tower and spire intact.
The church was rebuilt following an appeal by the incumbent, The Revd Hugh Gough
Hugh Rowlands Gough
Hugh Rowlands Gough CMG OBE TD was an Anglican bishop. He was the Bishop of Barking from 1948 to 1949 and then translated to be the Archbishop of Sydney, during which time he also served as Primate of the Church of England in Australia.Gough was born into a clerical family and educated at...
, and dedicated in 1956 when Maurice Wood
Maurice Wood
Maurice Arthur Ponsonby Wood DSC was an Anglican bishop in the Evangelical tradition. He was a Royal Navy commando chaplain in World War II and later the Bishop of Norwich.-Early life and education:...
was vicar. The architects, Seely and Paget, created an ambitious design which attempted to create a space suitable for a "renaissance of evangelical worship". The main worship space is vast, with a volume of over 5000 cubic metres, and features deep clear windows which allow an unusually high amount of more natural light.
In 1962, George Carey
George Carey
George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton PC, FKC is a former Archbishop of Canterbury, holding the office from 1991 to 2002. He was the first modern holder of the office not to have attended Oxford or Cambridge University...
became curate and, among other innovations, pioneered links with local council departments and founded a new Boy's Club.
St Mary's role in British Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
waned as the Islington Clerical Conference (of which the vicar had been ex-officio president) ended in 1983. In 2003, the then vicar, Graham Kings
Graham Kings
Graham Kings was consecrated as the Anglican Bishop of Sherborne on 24 June 2009 at a service in Westminster Abbey.- Early life :Kings was born in Barkingside, Essex on the eastern outskirts of London. He is one of 2 children...
and others founded Fulcrum
Fulcrum (Anglican think tank)
Fulcrum is a Church of England think tank representing the Evangelical Centre of the CofE. Formed in 2002, Fulcrum aims to renew the moderate centre of the evangelical tradition in the Church of England...
, which seeks to renew the evangelical tradition at the centre of the Church of England.
From the 1990s, as Islington became a more fashionable place to live and Upper Street developed a significant nightlife, St Mary's retained a concern to serve the widening range of people in the locality. The crypt beneath the church was radically transformed with an innovative regeneration programme and, in 2009, the St Mary Islington Community Partnership (SMICP) was formed to deliver and expand the range of community services that take place in the crypt and Neighbourhood Centre.
Worship
Worship services take place at St Mary's most days of the week. On Sundays, the main act of worship is the eleven o'clock service. A quieter evening service begins at 6pm. The Book of Common Prayer is used for a service of Holy Communion at 9am once per month.A daily morning prayer meeting takes place at 9.30am on weekdays and Saturdays.
In term time, a midweek lunchtime service is held from 12.45 to 1.15.