Patrick Comerford
After the Chrism Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, on Maundy Thursday (2 April 2026), we were all invited across the street for light refreshment in St Aldate’s Church, where we were welcomed by the Rector, the Revd Stephen Foster, and offered coffee and pastries.
St Aldate’s Church in the centre of Oxford, is on the street named St Aldate’s, opposite Christ Church and beside Pembroke College. The church is one of the best-known evangelical churches not only in Oxford but throughout the Church of England. It has a large congregation and a team of about 30, including clergy, pastoral and administrative staff, but has been criticised in a number of recent reports for its handling of controversies.
Curiously, there never was a saint named Saint Aldate. The church stands on a site that has been used for Christian worship since the Saxon era, and the first early church may have been one of three churches within the monastic precincts of Saint Frideswide’s Priory. The church was first recorded early in the 12th century. The name of the church is a corruption of ‘old gate’ and suggests a much earlier foundation, but the original dedication or saint’s name had been forgotten by then.
The first major parts of the church, the nave and chancel, were built in the 12th century, forming the central part of the building as it now stands. The south and north aisles were added in the 14th and 15th centuries to accommodate the growing population of Oxford. Since then, the church has been extended and remodelled over the centuries.
Half the advowson was given to Abingdon Abbey before 1135, the other half was given to Saint Frideswide’s Priory by 1122, and by 1200 the two houses agreed to share it, presenting alternately.
The mediaeval church had a chaplain as well as the rector. Many later mediaeval rectors were pluralists or had other interests: for instance, Thomas Browns, instituted in 1412, was the legal adviser to Osney Abbey.
The parish was enlarged in the 14th century with the addition of Saint Edward’s parish, and in 1524 with the addition of Saint Michael at the South Gate.
John of Ducklington paid to maintain a chaplain to celebrate Mass in the chapel he built for his family in 1334. The chantry was dedicated to Saint Mary, and was still there in 1535. Other chantries in the church included the Chapel of Saint Saviour, which survived until 1547, when it was known as Holy Trinity Chantry.
The advowson passed to the Crown at the dissolution of the monastic houses during the Tudor Reformations.
Thomas James (1573-1629), was the rector in 1602-1614, was also the first librarian of the Bodleian Library, Oxford (1598-1620). John Wall, the rector in 1617-1637, was a canon of Christ Church in 1632 and remained so throughout the political and religious upheavals of the mid 17th century.
Meanwhile, Charles I gave the advowson St Aldate’s to Pembroke College in 1629. John Bowles, rector in 1641-1667, was expelled from the university and probably from St Aldate’s in 1648, and from Saint Giles’s in 1651, although he was St Aldate’s again in 1652. St Aldate’s then remained without a permanent minister until the nonconformist Henry Hickman was appointed in 1656. One opponent later said that ‘the pope would provide him with a mitre and the devil with a frying pan’.
After the restoration, John Bowles returned to St Aldate’s in 1660 and died in 1667. His successor was John Hall (1633–1710), who was the rector in 1667-1710, and at the same time also master of Pembroke College (1664-1710), Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford (1676-1691) and Bishop of Bristol (1691-1710). He was the last of the English bishops to hold to traditional Puritan views.
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, St Aldate’s was served by members of Pembroke College, although most of the late-18th and early-19th-century rectors were non-resident. John Wilder (rector 1724-1743) and William Hawkins (1796-1801) both published attacks on ‘religious enthusiasm’, or Methodism.
The Archdeacon of Oxford threatened action against the churchwardens in 1827 unless they repaired the chancel, spire and roof immediately, but the main work was postponed until 1829. The interior was remodelled in 1832 under HJ Underwood. In 1843 the room over the south aisle was demolished, and the north aisle or chapel was extended eastwards to the end of the nave, a late mediaeval window being reset in the new work. Around that time, the 14th-century tracery of the east chancel window was replaced.
The last non-resident rector resigned in 1849. The Revd Henry Swabey (1826-1878) , who was the rector from 1850-1856, faced opposition from the churchwardens over free seats and from parishioners over his slightly High Church tendencies, such as his introduction of daily prayers and weekly Communion, but he attracted Sunday congregations of 400-500 in the morning and about 200 in the afternoon. Later, he was secretary of SPCK (1863-1878).
Pembroke College continued to present regularly until 1859, when it sold the advowson to Samuel Hanson, who then vested it in Simeon’s Trust, an evangelical body, in 1860.
Canon Alfred Christopher (1820-1913), who was the rector in 1859-1905, made St Aldate’s a centre of evangelical life in Oxford. He was also responsible for rebuilding and enlarging the church: the north and south chancel aisles and the north vestry were added, and the 13th century west tower and spire were rebuilt in 1873. He also founded the mission church at Saint Matthew's, Grandpont. The East Window is a memorial to him and its theme is the call to ‘Preach the Gospel to every creature’.
Later alterations to the interior, including raising the Communion table by one step in 1905, furnishing the south chancel aisle as a chapel in 1918, and erecting an oak reredos with six figures of saints in the chancel in 1920, gave the church a less obviously evangelical appearance.
Meanwhile, the parish of Saint Matthew’s, Grandpont, was formed out of the southern part of St Aldate’s parish in 1913. But congregation numbers began to fall at St Aldate’s at the end of the 19th century, and the decline accelerated in the early 20th century.
The church was revived under the Revd Christopher Maude Chavasse (1884-1962), who was the rector in 1922-1928. Chavasse and his twin brother Noel competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, and he was an army chaplain in World War I. Later, Christopher Chavasse was the first master of Saint Peter’s Hall, Oxford (1929-1940) and Bishop of Rochester (1940-1960).
The parish of Holy Trinity, originally taken from Saint Ebbe’s parish, was united with St Aldate’s In 1956.
Further remodelling of the building was completed in 2002. The pews were removed to create more seating room for a growing congregation, under-floor heating, carpet, Jerusalem stone tiles, wood flooring, and a state of the art audiovisual system with projector screens and television monitors were installed to create what was described as ‘a modern venue for a living church.’
The north wall was knocked open to create a spacious glass vestibule that opens the church up to St Aldate’s Street, and the graveyard at the front has been landscaped to open up a garden at the front of the church.
Most of the congregation of St Aldgate’s live outside the parish, with members drawn from throughout the city and surrounding towns and villages. Because of the nature of university life, the congregation is fluid and it is estimated that up to 30% change each year. During university terms, up to 400 students attend the Sunday services.
Channel 4 broadcast a documentary, ‘Revelations – How to find God’, on the Alpha course in St Aldate’s in 2009. But recent reports and controversies surrounding St Aldate's Church have focused on allegations of LGBTQ+ hostility, the use of controversial prayer practices, ‘conversion’ therapy and past failures on safeguarding disclosures.
St Aldate’s was cited in reports in 2023 and 2024 by student and advocacy groups regarding LGBTQ+ safety in Oxford churches. The reports alleged the use of ‘exorcism’ as part of practices described as conversion abuse or attempts to change LGBTQ+ people, which some reports allege continued under different leadership forms despite changing stances.
Under a previous rector, Canon Charlie Cleverly, and through the work of the Revd Simon Ponsonby, the church was criticised for conservative, evangelical teachings that caused distress and accusations of homophobia.
The Makin Review on abuse by the late John Smyth revealed in 2024 that the Revd Michael Green (1930-2019), who was Cleverly’s predecessor as rector in 1975-1982, was informed about Smyth’s abuse in 1982 but said he was ‘sworn to secrecy’ and did not report it.
More recent reports note a change in tone under the current rector, the Revd Stephen Foster, but they continue to report concerns among advocacy groups about ‘secrecy and silence’ on these past issues.
The issues at St Aldate’s are part of a wider conversation about pastoral practices, conversion therapy, and LGBTQ+ inclusion within Church of England and university chaplaincies.
The Revd Stephen Foster has been the rector since 2021. He first took a law degree at St Anne’s College, Oxford, and was a criminal barrister in London. He began his training for ordination in Cambridge in 2010, and his MPhil degree focused on the connections of justice and love. He was the Preaching Pastor at Holy Trinity, Brompton, and the National Director at Alpha UK before moving to St Aldate’s.
• The four Sunday services in St Aldate’s are at 10 am, 12 noon, 4 pm and 6 pm, and there is a full mid-week programme, but I found it impossible to tell from the church website when or if the Holy Communion is celebrated on Sundays.
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