Berkhamsted, All Saints

Normally I would skim over a church like All Saints, open, by including it as a sub-clause in a main entry but I'm making an exception here for three reasons: i] unusually for an urban church of this type it's welcomingly open, ii] it's made an extremely satisfying and intelligent ecumenical decision and iii] the history is interesting.

In the beginning, that is the 1890's, and as Berkhamsted expanded Kitsbury used a barn or coach house as a place of worship until a tin chapel was built. In 1905 the new church was begun to the design of CH Rew and All Saints was dedicated on Whit Sunday 1906 even though building work was not complete.

Financial difficulties in 1923 and, rather shockingly given that it was less than 20 years built, the need for repairs (who bets it was the roofers to blame?) led to its closure and the congregation's return to the Tin Tabernacle until 1938 when the building was re-opened and restoration was commenced. The church was eventually consecrated in 1956.

OK so far so commendable - community needs a church, community has no patron, community rallies round to build their own church but then the depression turns up and they've still got no wealthy patron so the only thing to do is warehouse their project until times get better. Then in 1938 life is looking better so they re-open only to be stymied a year later and post war austerity doesn't help much either - but still they persevere.

Skip forward 30 years to the 1980's, and the beginning of the dramatic nosedive in CoE church attendance, whoever was in charge decided to form bonds with the local Methodists and share the building and then, to quote directly from their website, "in the 1990s it was decided that they should move to a new depth of commitment. The Local Ecumenical Partnership deed was signed on 24 January 1993. Twelve years later in 2005, our centenary, the two congregations were - and still are - acting in most matters, as one body."

The body of the church - normally the nave - has been split in half with the Methodist congregation taking the east half and the Anglicans the west.

This, to me, is religious sanity - make the most of a white elephant and ensure its medium term survival whilst regular attendance continues to fall and meanwhile cross everything for the long term.

Neither Mee nor Pevsner mention this grand old ship but you can read their Berkhamsted entries here.

 

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