23 July 2024

Castle Street Methodist
Church in Cambridge
dates from 1820 and
was rebuilt in 1914

Castle Street Methodist Church is one of the 13 churches in the Cambridge Methodist Circuit (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

During my recent visits to Cambridge on my way to and from the USPG conference in High Leigh, I visited a number of churches including the Quaker Meeting House on Jesus Lane, the Unitarian Church on Emmanuel Road, Saint Clement’s Church on Bridge Street opposite Saint John’s College, Saint Giles Church at the junction of Castle Street and Chesterton Road, and the former Castle End Mission and Working Men’s Institute, now home to the Cambridge Chinese Christian Church.

Close to the former Castle End Mission, Castle Street Methodist Church on Castle Street is one of the 13 churches in the Cambridge Methodist Circuit.

The church stands on a site that is said to have been developed during the Roman occupation, and the first church on the site was converted from a cottage by the Primitive Methodists.

At the time, Castle End was one of the most impoverished areas in Cambridge. It had a reputation as rough area, known for its drunkards and prostitutes, with an abundance of public houses. But it was also a closely-knit working class community, with high levels of unemployment and poverty. It has been described as a village within a town popularly known as ‘The Borough’ – the Burh or fortified place – and any boy born within its boundaries was known as a Borough Boy.

Joseph Reynolds first held open-air Methodist services at Castle End in 1820. A cottage on the Saint Peter’s Street end of the present site was later acquired by the Primitive Methodists. This was adapted as a chapel and the building was enlarged by cutting through the floor, creating a gallery.

The first purpose-built chapel was built in 1823, then rebuilt in 1841 and in 1863. A completely new building, designed by Augustus Frederic Scott was built in 1914, when it was felt that a larger chapel was needed. The foundations from the 1863 chapel form part of the foundations of the present building and the 1863 foundation stone is set in the wall of the Aldersgate Room.

The current building was designed by the Norwich-based architect Augustus Frederic Scott (1854-1936), in the Tudor Perpendicular style and has Grade II Listed status since 2003. Scott was born in the Breckland village of Rockland St Peter, Norfolk. His father, the Revd Jonathan Scott, was a Primitive Methodist minister.

Scott’s works included both civic and church buildings, as well as several large hotels and many private commissions. After his training, he settled in Norwich, where he opened his own practice. His two sons joined him in the business in 1912. Scott was a practising Primitive Methodist , a strict teetotaller, a strict vegetarian and a Sabbatarian. He disagreed with paying that part of his local government rates that funded Church of England schools and when bailiffs removed his paintings, he would buy them back again.

As a Primitive Methodist he also became a local preacher. He was an enthusiastic cyclist, and travelled thousands of miles by bicycle and even cycled to London for business on several occasions. At his own expense, he maintained a Chinese missionary in Western China

He became embroiled in a dispute with the Revd Percy Carden, the minister at Scott Memorial Church in Norwich, in 1920. Cardeb was a controversial figure because of his commitment to Socialist causes. As a result of the dispute, Scott and his family permanently severed relations with the church that was named after his father.

Scott designed many of the now listed and important unlisted buildings in Cromer on the north Norfolk coast, including the Methodist and Baptist chapels, the Cliftonville Hotel, Eversley Hotel, the churchyard wall and a number of shops and houses on Church Street and Cliff Avenue.

The church building has two sections, joined by a glass fronted entrance. The worship area can seat about 120 people and houses the Binns pipe organ, built by James Jepson Binns of Leeds. It was installed in 1929 and was one of the last organs BinnsNorwich built before he died that year.

The church had a major refurbishment in 2010 to improve accessibility and facilities, with improved accessibility, a sound system and a new organ console, although the original 1929 Binns organ was retained.

The church is a member of the Church at Castle ecumenical partnership with Saint Augustine’s, Saint Giles (Anglican), Saint Luke’s (Anglican/URC) and Saint Peter’s.

The Revd Jenny Pathmarajah has been the minister at Castle Street Methodist Church and Histon Methodist Church since 2022. She has a degree in Linguistics from Saint John’s College, Durham, and did her theology training at Wesley House, Cambridge.

Castle Street Methodist Church describes itself as a church where all are welcome, all the time, and says it is dedicated to providing a safe and welcoming space for all.

Sunday services are at 10 am each week, with an evening service on the second Sunday of the month. The church also hosts the Cambridge Korean Yeolim Church.

Castle Street Methodist Church in Cambridge was designed by Augustus Frederic Scott and built in 1914 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024:
75, Tuesday 23 July 2024

‘Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands that holy things have taken’ (Post-Communion Prayer) … Communion vessels in the chapel of Westcott House, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and the week began with the Eighth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VIII). Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Bridget of Sweden (1373), Abbess of Vadstena.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

A quotation from Thomas Merton shared by Bishop Graham Usher at the USPG conference in 2021

Matthew 12: 46-50 (NRSVA):

46 While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, ‘Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.’ 48 But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ 49 And pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’

‘Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands that holy things have taken’ (Post-Communion Prayer) … bread and wine on the table in a restaurant in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

This morning’s reflection:

These past few days were among the hottest I have ever experienced in England for many years, with temperatures in Milton Keynes hitting 30 on Friday. Yet, this heat in times such as, and this morning’s unseasonably heavy rain, are also sharp reminders that Climate Change threatens the lives of all of us.

Three years ago, the USPG conference in 2021 took as its theme ‘For Such a Time as This’. The title came from the Biblical story of Esther in which Mordecai asks Esther to consider whether she has found herself in her privileged position at ‘such a time as this,’ a time of great crisis, so that she can do God’s will and stop a looming catastrophe (Esther 4: 14).

‘Such a Time as This’ … Mordecai uses the phrase twice in one verse.

In ‘such a time as this’, we are challenged to think whether the Church has a voice that must speak out: this is a time when we are aware of potential catastrophes created by war and violence in Ukraine and Russia and in Gaza, Israel and Palestine, by pandemics, by racism, by political extremism, by gender violence, by climate change, by the rise of the far-right across Europe, by the threats posed by the resurgence of Trump in the US … and so on.

In the Biblical story, Mordecai warns Esther that if she stays silent at such a time as this, she and her family may perish, but God will raise up ‘relief and deliverance … from another quarter.’

At that conference three years ago, we were challenged, day after day, in such a time as this, whether the Church is going to speak out today, or whether we are going to wait silently for God to provide ‘relief and deliverance … from another quarter.’

The Cry of Creation could be heard throughout presentations that invited us to listen to ‘The Cry of Creation.’

Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, drew on the opening word of the Rule of Saint Benedict – ‘Listen’ – as he urged us to listen to the groan and cry of creation, to listen to the cry of the dispossessed, and to listen to God’s voice on how we can live more simply so that others might simply live.

Sadly, he quoted a survey that finds eight out of ten young people say they have never heard a sermon on climate change. Yet the Fifth Mark of Mission in the Anglican Communion calls on us ‘To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.’

If the Church engages with climate change, he suggested, then we may find we are evangelising the young.

He quoted from Thomas Merton: ‘From the moment you put a piece of bread in your mouth you are part of the world. Who grew the wheat? Who made the bread? Where did it come from? You are in relationship with all who brought it to the table. We are least separate and most in common when we eat and drink.’

In one of the Bible studies that year, Suchitra Behera, an Indian theologian working with the Diocese of Barishal in the Church of Bangladesh, told a moving story of hearing that ‘Cry of Creation’ in a group of elephants, grieving the death of one elephant killed by a car or a truck on a road. The elephants staged their own protest on the road against the destruction of their habitat, blocking traffic in an organised protest. And she quoted the Prophet Jeremiah on the groaning of creation:

How long will the land mourn,
and the grass of every field wither?
For the wickedness of those who live in it
the animals and the birds are swept away,
and because people said, ‘He is blind to our ways.’

They have made it a desolation;
desolate, it mourns to me.
The whole land is made desolate,
but no one lays it to heart (Jeremiah 12: 4, 11, NRSVA).

Drawing on the liberation theologian Leonardo Boff, she linked the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.

The cry of creation and the cry of humanity are not separate cries.

And this is closely linked with the Post-Communion Prayer introduced on Sunday and being prayed throughout this week:

Strengthen for service, Lord,
the hands that have taken holy things;
may the ears which have heard your word
be deaf to clamour and dispute;
may the tongues which have sung your praise be free from deceit;
may the eyes which have seen the tokens of your love
shine with the light of hope;
and may the bodies which have been fed with your body
be refreshed with the fullness of your life;
glory to you for ever.

We can be transfixed by fear or paralysed into inaction in ‘such a time as this.’ But if the Church remains silent at such a time as this then, perhaps, as Mordecai tells Esther, God raise up ‘relief and deliverance … from another quarter.’

As that conference in 2021 closed, the Revd Duncan Dormor, general secretary of USPG, reminded us that in the breaking of bread we are one body. Poverty and the assault on the earth challenge us to hear the groaning of creation, he said, and he repeated that there can be no salvation for humanity that does not include creation.

The breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup takes us to the heart of creation.

Let us break bread together. Amen.

Fresh bread in the window of Hindley’s bakery and cafĂ© in Tamworth Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 23 July 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Someone called my name – Mary Magdalene Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Cathrine Ngangira, Priest-in-Charge, Benefice of Boughton-under-Blean with Durnkirk, Graveney with Goodnestone and Hernhill.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 23 July 2024) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we pray for you to draw us closer so that we may know the risen Jesus Christ and to make him known.

The Collect:

Almighty Lord and everlasting God,
we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern
both our hearts and bodies
in the ways of your laws
and the works of your commandments;
that through your most mighty protection, both here and ever,
we may be preserved in body and soul;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Strengthen for service, Lord,
the hands that have taken holy things;
may the ears which have heard your word
be deaf to clamour and dispute;
may the tongues which have sung your praise be free from deceit;
may the eyes which have seen the tokens of your love
shine with the light of hope;
and may the bodies which have been fed with your body
be refreshed with the fullness of your life;
glory to you for ever.

Additional Collect:

Lord God,
your Son left the riches of heaven
and became poor for our sake:
when we prosper save us from pride,
when we are needy save us from despair,
that we may trust in you alone;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

‘Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands that holy things have taken’ (Post-Communion Prayer) … bread and wine on the table at lunchtime in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org