Patrick Comerford
Saint Columba’s United Reformed Church on Alfred Street, off the High Street in Oxford, has its roots in the chaplaincy to Presbyterian students in Oxford in the early 20th century.
With the Caroline restoration in 1660, Presbyterians and Independents or Congregationalists in Oxford often worshipped together in temporary meeting houses. These included Dr Christopher Rogers’s house, ‘Tom Pun’s house’ in George Street and Sir John Thompson's house in the parish of Saint Peter-in-the-East.
After the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672, applications were made to licence a meeting house for the Presbyterians in Anthony Hall’s house in St Ebbe’s and for two meeting houses for Congregationalists. With the Act of Toleration (1689), the main Presbyterian meeting house was in a former dancing school outside the North Gate, and then in Anthony Hall’s house, where they remained until 1715.
During riots in 1715, a Tory mob wrecked the Presbyterian meeting house and burnt the pastor in effigy. Hall’s son refused to renew the lease and the Presbyterians bought the site of what would become New Road Baptist Church, which I was writing about yesterday (4 February 2024).
William Plater, the last of the ‘Old Presbyterians’ in Oxford, died in 1800. His family had been prominent in the church since the 1680s. Congregationalists and Scottish and English Presbyterians did not re-establish a presence in Oxford for some decades.
A renewed Congregationalist presence in Oxford began with the secession of 12 members from the New Road Baptist Church in 1830 and 28 more in 1836. The first Congregational chapel in Oxford opened in George Street in 1832. A site for a new church in St Giles’s Street was bought in 1900, but the idea was abandoned in 1910. The congregation disbanded in 1933, and the church was closed and sold to the city council.
The Cowley Road Congregational church began as a mission from the George Street chapel in 1868-1869. It became the Tyndale Church in 1955, but closed in 1962 and was demolished in 1963. The Temple Cowley Congregational church began in 1878 and moved to Oxford Road, Cowley, in 1930.
HC Bazeley of Brasenose College opened a Scottish Presbyterian church in the former Quaker meeting house in Pusey Lane by in 1871. He built a small church in Nelson Street in 1877, but the congregation dispersed after he died in 1883.
Saint Columba’s Church traces its origins to a chaplaincy for Presbyterian students that began in 1908 as a joint initiative by the Church of Scotland, the United Free Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church of England. Other Presbyterians were soon attending regularly, leading to Saint Columba’s Church being built in Alfred Street.
The church was designed by the Dublin-born architect Thomas Phillips Figgis (1858-1948). His works in Ireland included Harold’s Cross Parish Hall (1883), now known as Century House, Dublin, and the Parochial Hall on Novara Road in Bray, Co Wicklow.
Much of the funding for the building was donated by the Scottish twin sisters, Agnes and Margaret Smith, the ‘Sisters of the Sinai.’ Their story is told by Professor Janet Soskice of Cambridge in Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels (London: Vintage, 2010), in which she describes their discovery of an early copy of the Four Gospels in Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai, in 1893.
The foundation stone of the church was laid in 1914 by the Belfast-born politician and diplomat James Bryce (1838-1922), Lord Bryce, who had been Chief Secretary for Ireland (1905-1907) and the British ambassador to Washington (1907-1913).
Saint Columba’s was dedicated and opened in 1915. The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner has described the church as a ‘well-mannered’ building. The church has a long aisles nave and a shallow, rectangular chancel. The Arts and Crafts-style stained glass in the chancel is by Theodora Salusbury.
Saint Columba’s became a self-governing congregation in the Presbyterian Church of England in 1929. It served as both a church and a university chaplaincy, retaining only slender links with the Church of Scotland.
The front courtyard was replaced in 1960 when a lobby or vestibule designed by E Brian Smith was added to the church.
The ministers who have served the church include: the Revd David Lusk, father of the Revd Mary Levison (1923-2011), a pioneer and campaigner for the ordination of women in the Church of Scotland; the hymnwriter, the Revd Caryl Micklem; and two ministers who later became principals of Westminster College, Cambridge, the Revd Roy Drummond Whitehorn and the Revd Dr Susan Durber.
The novelist John Buchan (Lord Tweedsmuir), author of The 39 Steps, was an elder in Saint Columba’s in the 1920s and 1930s before he became Governor General of Canada. Other lay members have included the physician and Olympic rower Dr WGRM (Ran) Laurie (1915-1998), his son the actor Hugh Laurie and the organist Guy Warrack.
The Presbyterian Church of England and the Congregational Churches united to the United Reformed Church in 1972, and Saint Columba’s became a congregation of the URC.
Saint Columba’s URC serves both town and gown in Oxford, as a local community church and as the Reformed churches’ chaplaincy to the University. It shares its ministry with Mansfield College Oxford, a college founded by Congregationalists and that has a URC chaplain, and with Cumnor URC since 2001.
Saint Columba’s describes itself as ‘a spiritual community of thinkers and listeners and lovers, in love with Jesus and excited about the invitation Jesus offers to participate in the life of God in the world. We are creating an welcoming and affirming community that speaks out about social justice issues and seeks to share what we have with others.’
The church says, ‘When we gather at the Lord’s table, we bring food for others too. When we worship, we seek to meet God face to face – no matter our age. Rooted in the Reformed tradition, we enjoy our freedom to draw on the past and reach into the future in innovative ways.’
The church adds, ‘We want a better world and believe that the kingdom of heaven is indeed at hand, a kingdom where children do not go to bed hungry, weapons are turned into ploughshares, and women and men know their value before God. We hunger and labour for the kingdom, and hope that you do too.’
Consistent with these values, Saint Columba’s performs same-sex marriages, blesses civil partnerships, and also hosts First Sunday, a fellowship for LGBTQ Christians.
• Saint Columba’s is in ministerial transition, meaning it is currently without a minister in pastoral charge. Sunday Services are at 10:45 am.
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