The Chapels Society

If you want to visit Malua College, you need to fly to New Zealand and then fly a further 1,500 miles to the north east across the Pacific Ocean. After finding Samoa and touching down at Apia airport, take the only road on offer and after an hour driving along the coast you will find the college beside the sea. At its core, it is the theological college of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (CCCS) and the second oldest college of any denomination in the whole Pacific region.

As Malua College also hosts major church gatherings of the CCCS, the largest Christian community in Samoa, it was decided to build a large enough church to accommodate a thousand worshippers. Several years and £5m later, it now stands majestically on the edge of the college campus alongside the main road, with the cross on its spire a new prominent landmark.

Splendid though this may be, there was a snag familiar to many chapelgoers in Britain. The college values its heritage from the British missionaries and the new church needed the site of the historic college chapel, which many people were very reluctant to lose. The solution was to dismantle the old chapel and re-erect it on the other side of the campus.

What is now the Old Chapel was built to mark the Jubilee of the college’s foundation in 1844 and was finished in 1897. It largely relies on timber construction with the roof an upturned echo of the ocean-going canoes which the missionary John Williams used to bring the Gospel to Samoa in 1830. The College Principal has a special pew with a desk to assist with noting comments on student preachers. A memorial stone commemorates the pioneer missionaries that Malua sent across the Pacific to Papua New Guinea as early as 1883.

The College worships in the chapel every morning. Much of the worship structure and style would sound very familiar to British chapelgoers. The music might make a greater impression. Many of the hymn tunes are imported from Britain, although others come from the Caribbean or North America, and the Samoan words are often translations of English ones. The Samoan people seem naturally musical and almost all the college students and their wives are in the choir. This produces a massed choir of over a hundred for major services, who generate a remarkable sound in many parts. Like a Welsh male voice choir, they know the power of singing evocative words slowly.

The musical life of the Old Chapel starts before the services however. There is no bell to summon the community to chapel. Instead, just outside the Old Chapel there is a raised platform under a roof for shade, where two hollowed out logs of different sizes rest. Ten minutes before a service is due to begin a trio of drummers in the official College uniform start to play these and produce a sonorous and compelling call to worship audible across the campus. About three minutes before the service, they stop for a short organ voluntary inside the chapel. Then immediately before the preacher stands up, the drummers resume with a dramatic drum roll. All is ready.

John Ellis

Past President Tim Grass recommends a trip to an East Anglian village famous for its religious heritage.

Visitors to Walsingham normally make for the Anglican and/or Roman Catholic shrines, but it has other church buildings worthy of note.

The Methodist Chapel features on the front cover of the Eastern England volume of Christopher Stell’s series.

At the other end of the spectrum is the Russian Orthodox Chapel of St Seraphim, illustrated below. It was converted from what had been the railway station. This was built in 1857, although the line from Fakenham to Wells closed in 1964. When I visited it around 1990, even the platform fencing remained in place.

St Seraphim’s Trust is currently applying for funding to make the building, its iconography and its railway heritage more accessible to the public and has established a Friends Group to support their activities.

As we mark the centenary of the end of the First World War this seems a fitting time to highlight the unique Sandham Memorial Chapel with its collection of paintings by Stanley Spencer as our Chapel of the Month.

© Copyright Michael FORD and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The Chapel is cared for by the National Trust. The following text is from their website:

This modest red-brick building tucked away in a quiet corner of Hampshire houses an unexpected treasure; an epic series of large-scale murals, by the acclaimed war artist Sir Stanley Spencer.

Built to honour the ‘forgotten dead’ of the First World War, who were not remembered on any official memorials, the series was inspired by Spencer’s own experiences as a medical orderly at the Beaufort Hospital in Bristol and both orderly and soldier on the Salonika front. It is peppered with personal and unexpected details and uniquely shows the everyday activities rather than the horrors of war. Inspired by Giotto’s Arena Chapel in Padua and made possible through the generous patronage of Mr & Mrs Behrend, Spencer referred to Sandham Memorial Chapel as his “Holy Box”. The 19 oil paintings covering three walls of the chapel took six years to complete and are considered by many to be the artist’s finest achievement.

© Copyright pam fray and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The chapel holds services throughout the year, the most important of these being the annual Remembrance Day event. There are also regular talks in the Chapel about its creation and the paintings themselves, as well as a lively programme of workshops and events.

There is an exhibition area in one of the original alms-houses which are decorated in period colours and style. You’ll find information panels, a short film, copy archival material, a handling kit, and panels contextualising the chapel.

Outside the front of the chapel you have views across to Watership Down which glows in the late evening sun,  the original orchard with old apple varieties and a beautiful wildflower meadow containing many important flora and fauna.

At the rear of the chapel the garden which was professionally designed, but inspired and created by volunteers, provides a place to reflect.

Images of the Chapel and further information can be found on the following websites:

• Art UK
• Apollo Magazine

This month we have a bumper issue of Chapel of the Month as Roger N Holden, a keen photographer and Chapels Society member, shares his thoughts about some of the charming and very varied chapels to be found in the Shetland Islands.

From a chapels point of view, the most surprising thing about Shetland, the most northerly group of islands in Scotland and hence the United Kingdom, is the large number of Methodist chapels. Methodism has always been weak in Presbyterian dominated Scotland, no doubt being seen as an English import. Counting numbers on the Methodist Church web-site, there are currently some 50 Methodist Churches in Scotland of which no fewer the 13 are on Shetland. That is 26% of churches on islands which contain a mere 0.05% of the population of Scotland. This includes churches on Fair Isle and at Haroldswick on Unst which claims to be not just the most northerly Methodist church but the most northerly church in the United Kingdom. John Wesley never visited Shetland and the first Methodists to come to the islands were Samuel Dunn and John Raby in October 1822. But growth of the Methodists in Shetland is principally attributed to the missionary work of Adam Clarke later in the 1820s. The Methodist Church in Lerwick, built in 1872, is named the Adam Clarke Memorial Church in his honour (photo 1). The chapel at Walls is of such size and prominence to be mistaken for the parish church (photo 2) although others are simpler buildings like that at Vidlin (photo 3) which stands hard by the water’s edge. In the past there were more active churches than there are now and a number of chapels survive in residential or commercial use such as those at Skelberry on South Mainland (photo 4) and Burravoe on Yell (photo 5). All the churches on Shetland were originally Wesleyan, none of the other Methodist Connexions got this far.

Why Wesleyan Methodism took such a hold on Shetland while it made no impact on the rest of the Highlands and Islands, is a matter of speculation. Culturally Shetland, and also Orkney, is very different from the Western Isles. Their associations are more Nordic, they never have been Gaelic speaking and their traditional language was a form of Old Norse. This may be one reason why the strict Presbyterianism of the Western Isles never took root here but it may also be a reflection of the fact that the established church found great difficulties in serving this remote and scattered group of Islands as other evangelists before the Methodists had found that their message took root here.

James Haldane had visited Shetland in 1799 and when George Reid was sent in 1806 to preach to “its poor inhabitants” he already found a number of people who had separated from the Established Church. A church was accordingly formed in Lerwick on Congregational principles while Reid travelled throughout the islands preaching. Resulting from this Congregational churches were established in a number of places, including the remote island of Foula. The Congregational church in Lerwick still meets in its chapel originally built in 1820, enlarged and rebuilt in 1840 and 1893 (photo 6). As far as is known the only other currently active Congregational church on Shetland is that at Reawick.

Sinclair Thompson formed a branch of the Lerwick church at Spigge, in South Mainland but subsequently he became convinced of Baptist principles and was baptised, it is not clear by whom, in Spiggie Loch in August 1815 resulting in the formation of Dunrossness Baptist Church. The current rather curious building used by the church was designed by the pastor of the church, William Fotheringham (photo 7). The initials ST over the doorway clearly refer to Sinclair Thompson, the dates 1816 and 1912 being the dates respectively of the founding of the church and the construction of the present building (photo 8). The Baptist Church building of 1894 in Lerwick, which stands opposite the Congregational Chapel, has now been converted for residential use (photo 9). This is not because the congregation has disbanded but because they moved to a large new building in 2013 at Quoys Road, amongst a housing development with a very Scandinavian feel in the suburbs of Lerwick. The building of Burra Baptist Church dates from 1904 and stands on East Burra just above the bridge linking to West Burra (photo 10); the church also meets in Hamnavoe on West Burra.

The Plymouth Brethren came to Shetland later, in the 1860s. Ebenezer Gospel Hall in Lerwick is almost impossible to photograph, standing as it does in Navy Lane, one of the narrow lanes leading up from the water-front. More accessible for photography is the Hall in Lang Closs, Scalloway (photo 11). The final word, however, must go the Gospel Hall in Sound, a suburb of Lerwick, which prominently proclaims that it is the “Sound Gospel Hall” (photo 12). Well, indeed one would not wish to attend an unsound Gospel Hall!

Photos:

1. Adam Clarke Memorial Methodist Church, Lerwick
2. Walls Methodist Church
3. Vidlin Methodist Church
4. Skelberry Methodist Chapel
5. Burravoe Methodist Chapel, Yell
6. Lerwick Congregational Church
7. Dunrossness Baptist Church
8. Dunrossness Baptist Chapel
9. Lerwick Baptist Chapel
10. Burra Baptist Church
11. Gospel Hall, Lang Closs, Scalloway
12. Sound Gospel Hall

Sources:

• John Gifford, The Buildings of Scotland: Highlands and Islands (London: Penguin, 1992), 467-518
• William D. McNaughton, Early Congregational Independency in Shetland (Lerwick: Shetland Times, 2005)

John Ellis, Immediate Past Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church, brings a little sunshine to August’s Chapel of the Month with a trip to Polynesia.

“Go and make disciples of all nations”

Papetoai Chapel

Moorea is all you could wish for in a Pacific island. This speck in the ocean can provide a luxury holiday experience with all mod cons in a fake Polynesian hut. But should you find yourself there, turn off the perimeter road at Papetoai and walk down to the beach. Alongside you will see a lovingly tended and beautiful octagonal chapel with exceptional acoustics. You will also be contemplating a turning point in world history.

The London Missionary Society was formed to be an ecumenical sponsor of missionary activity. Its first overseas project resulted in thirty missionaries landing in Tahiti in 1797. There was no evangelistic response whatever and local politics resulted in them all being expelled. Most despaired and left but a handful believed God had plans and moved no further than to the adjacent island of Moorea. There they created a base at Papetoai. Still there was no response to the Gospel.

After twenty long years, the tide turned, they rejoiced in the first Polynesian baptism and in 1822 were able to form the first Christian church. In 1827 it erected its distinctive chapel on the site of a former native temple. Work was able to resume on Tahiti and from there the evangelisation of the Pacific Ocean islands was led through the remaining decades of the nineteenth century. While the focus may have moved elsewhere, the Papetoai chapel stands quietly amongst the coconut palms as the oldest Christian church in the Pacific.

Papetoai Chapel memorial

In 1842 the French took political control of what is now French Polynesia and the LMS handed over the Church leadership to the French Protestant Mission. They refurbished the church in the 1880s but always acknowledged the crucial contribution of the LMS pioneers and erected a memorial to them in the church. Some of their graves are outside, alongside the ocean that was their highway.

In 2016 the Maohi Protestant Church in French Polynesia came home to its historical roots by joining the Council for World Mission, the equal partnership of Churches that succeeded the imperial model of the LMS.

All this may be 10,000 miles away but Chapels Society members who think of John Williams as a missionary martyr rather than a guitarist will have spotted the link. For decades, almost every British Congregational chapel had its Missionary Sunday when the octagonal LMS hut collecting boxes were opened. Sunday School scholars collected ship halfpennies to fund the work of the John Williams missionary ships around the islands of the Pacific. Vivid stories of dedicated service were told and in the chapel at Papetoai they spring into life.

And is our organist striking up:
In Christ there is no East or West,
In Him no South or North,
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide earth.

Every year the Chapels Society organises three visits for members. The visits take place in a range of locations across the country and every so often we return to London to explore some of the wealth of Nonconformist chapels in the capital. On 7 July Dr Jenny Freeman led an excellent tour of chapels in the East End of London – an area rich in social and architectural history. The first stop on our tour was St Boniface RC Church, also known as the German Church.

St Boniface is a post-war church, which replaced a church of 1875 designed by J Young and destroyed during World War II. Although relatively plain, the present church is notable for its landmark tower incorporating four bells from the predecessor church. The church also contains a range of interesting high-quality furnishings, mostly by artists and craftsmen from Kevelaer in Germany, the birthplace of Revd Felix Leushacke, who initiated the rebuilding.

More details can be found on the Taking Stock website and on the Survey of London website.

2018 is the European Year of Cultural Heritage – a pan-European initiative that aims to encourage more people to discover and engage with Europe’s cultural heritage and to reinforce a sense of belonging to a common European space.

German Lutheran Church, Aldgate

The slogan for the year is: Our heritage: where the past meets the future.

The UK is participating in the project and has its own dedicated website where special events and activities are listed on a calendar. Many ecclesiastical organisations are taking part, including the National Churches Trust, which has created a special blog post on its Explore Churches website to showcase churches and chapels with a European connection.

The blog features twelve places of worship, representing the original member states of the EU in 1993 and the members of the EEC, created 45 years ago. The article includes the Historic Chapels Trust’s wonderful German Lutheran Church in London.