Today we are going to talk about the parish churches of England.  Most of our churches are old.  When you come across a new church, as you often do in a town, it usually means that a new parish has been carved out of an old one.  The new church is known as the daughter church of the old parish church which you will find in the neighbourhood.  There are examples of this all over the country.

Early developments

Of course, when the Christian Faith was first brought to this country, there were no churches.  When the missionaries came to a village, they used to set up a wooden cross in a prominent, open place and there they preached the Faith in the open air.  Later, in order to mark the exact spot, it was the custom to erect a stone cross.  Some of these preaching crosses still survive. (1)

The first churches were made of wattles and mud.  Then they were replaced by much stouter buildings with walls of split tree trunks, and thatched roofs.  In Saxon times stone churches began to be built, but they were quite small.  What made an enormous difference over the whole country was the Norman Conquest.  The Normans were very good at building, and the old wooden churches were gradually pulled down and new stone ones put up instead on the same spot.  These were generally paid for by a local landowner.

As the populations of the parishes grew, so many of the churches were enlarged.  The easiest way to do this was to add aisles to the nave.  That is to say, they knocked down the walls of the part of the church which the congregation occupied, and put up instead an arcade of pillars and arches to support the roof.  Then beyond the arcade they built new outside walls and roofed over the extra space, making it into what is called an aisle, from the Latin ala, a wing.

At first the windows were kept fairly small in order not to weaken the walls.  But gradually, as the builders became more expert, they were able to put in larger and larger windows until in the 14th and 15th centuries almost the whole wall of a church might consist of glass panels.

Thus, as the years passed, the churches were altered and improved so that they might be as fine and as beautiful as possible, because all the time they were built for God.  The people gave of their best because only the best is good enough for God.

Towers and spires

One of the ways in which they made the churches splendid was by building a tower.  In Saxon times the towers were used as a place of refuge and defence in time of danger, and they also provided a good look-out to give warning of an attack.  But after the Norman Conquest they were built for God, and the great, square church tower was a reminder of the Christian Church herself standing resolute and foursquare against the forces of evil.

Many of the towers were built with spires, graceful fingers of stone pointing to heaven and so turning people’s minds to God.  It is, perhaps, the spire which, more than anything else, shows that the church is built for God and not for human beings.  For the spire, costly and difficult though it is to build, is useless to human beings.  It is a human gift to God.

The finest spires were erected in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the finest towers in the 15th, and together they form one of the greatest achievements of the medieval builders.  Some of them are from 100 feet to nearly 300 feet in height.

Dedication

Churches are normally built so that the altar is at the east end.  The meaning of this is that, as the church points towards the sun-rising, so it is directed to Our Lord, the Sun of Righteousness who warms and enlightens the souls of human beings (Malachi 4:2).

The day on which the church was solemnly given to God was its Dedication Day, and this is celebrated each year by the Dedication Festival.  In many places the date of this has been forgotten because in 1536, when Henry VIII was King of England, it was ordered that all the parishes in the country should keep their Dedication Festival, not on the anniversary of their dedication, but on the first Sunday in October (see Note below).  In some villages the real date has been handed down by word of mouth or has been preserved by the annual village fair which originally formed part of the merrymaking in honour of the Dedication Festival or Feast.  Indeed, in some places this annual fair is still known as the feast.  There is an old rhyme which shows what a joyful occasion the Dedication Festival was and should be:

“The Dedication of the Church is yearly had in mind
With worship passing Catholic, and in a wondrous kind.
From out the steeple high is hung a cross and banner fair,
The pavement of the temple strewn with herbs of pleasant air,
The pulpits and the altars, and all that in the Church are seen.
And every seat and pillar great, are deck’d with boughs of green”.

Herbs and rushes used to be the floor covering of kings’ palaces and this royal luxury was brought into the church on important festivals, especially at the Dedication Feast. (2)

The names of churches

Every church has a name.  It may be named after God, like Holy Trinity or Christ Church.  More commonly it is named after a patron saint, like St Mary the Virgin or named after more than one patron saint, such as St Peter and St Paul or All Saints.  The Feast of a church’s Saint or Saints is called the Patronal Festival.  Where the church is named after God, the corresponding Feast is called its Feast of Title.

SUMMARY

1. Most old parish churches are built on the site of an earlier one.  A church, since it is first and foremost God’s House, is built as beautifully as possible to his honour.  That is why many have towers or steeples.

2. Every church is named, either after God (e.g. Holy Trinity or Christ Church); or after one or more Patron Saints, such as St Mary the Virgin or St Peter and St Paul, to whose prayers the church and parish are specially entrusted.

Note

According to Common Worship, if the date of the church’s Dedication is not known it should be observed on the First Sunday in October or the Last Sunday after Trinity. (3)

References

1. Scroll down for a photograph of a preaching cross at Burton Parish Church:
http://www.saintsandstonesriverside.org.uk/stmarys.html

2. Wall, J.C. (1907) An old English parish, London: Talbot.

3. ©The Archbishops’ Council (2000) Common Worship.  Lectionary for Sundays, Principal Feasts and Holy Days, and Festivals.  Festivals.  Dedication Festival. Available from:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/lect/festivals/dedication.html  (Accessed 24 August 2010) (Internet).