04 February 2024

New Road Baptist Church
is part of the history
of progressive
thinking in Oxford

New Road Baptist Church in Oxford is close to the busy shopping areas, the castle and Nuffield College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Some months ago, I wandered around Jericho in Oxford, I wondered about the story of the Strict Baptist Chapel, which dates from 1881 and how it had become part of the Oxford Baptist Chapel.

However, over the decades, Oxford has had a colourful variety of Baptist churches and chapels. The oldest and most historic of these is New Road Baptist Church, tucked into a corner of Bonn Square, close to the busy shopping areas, Oxford Castle and Nuffield College. Its classical façade is almost half-hidden from view by the tables of the Art Café and the steps leading up to Bonn Square, and I found myself there on Thursday afternoon.

New Road Baptist Church says it has ‘a broad, inclusive and life-affirming theology,’ and declares: ‘We see God at work in the lives of people both inside and outside the church. We have a broad, inclusive and life-affirming theology. We believe that all people are loved by God and we see God at work in the lives of people both inside and outside the church.’

The church welcomes everyone and says ‘nobody is excluded from participation in its life on the grounds of their age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, physical and mental abilities, neurodiversity, education, class, or economic status.’

It adds: ‘We welcome and affirm those who express their gender and sexuality in every way that reflects faithfulness in love. We are committed to pursuing justice in every area of social life, and working for peace as we are able. Our welcoming of everyone includes those who may struggle with our commitment to full inclusiveness. We believe God calls each of us to live together in the community of Christ regardless of our differences.’

The forward-looking, progressive values of this church can be traced back to a remarkable Covenant signed by the church in 1780, when it created what it called a ‘Protestant Catholic Church of Christ.’ The result was a broad and broad-minded church that was two centuries ahead of its time.

A Baptist group was probably formed in Oxford shortly after the surrender of the royalist garrison in 1646. Roger Hatchman, Matthew Jellyman and Thomas Williams were later described as Anabaptists. Williams, a High Street milliner, was mayor of Oxford in 1653. He was ridiculed in a poem in 1654, ‘Zeal Overheated’, inspired by a fire in his shop.

The early Oxford Baptists were closely associated with a strong group of Baptists in Abingdon. The early Anabaptists in Oxford may have also included some Fifth Monarchy men. Vavasour Powell, a prominent Fifth Monarchy man, preached in All Saints’ Church in 1657. John Belcher, another Fifth Monarchy man, preached against the Restoration in 1660 in Saint Peter-le-Bailey church.

Lawrence King, a glover, held public baptisms at Hythe Bridge after 1660, and King's house was sometimes used for meetings. But the main meeting-house was the home of Richard Tidmarsh, a tanner, house in Titmouse Lane which continued to be used until about 1715.

Unlike the Presbyterians and Independents, the Baptists had no ex-university preachers and their radical views brought them under suspicion. Their meetinghouse in Oxford was attacked by the militia in 1661, and some of the congregation were arrested.

After the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672, Tidmarsh and King obtained a licence for Tidmarsh’s house, where Tidmarsh preached, assisted by a 'miller of Abingdon'. During the Rye House Plot in 1683, King’s house was searched for arms. He left Oxford in 1690.

The persecution of Dissenters in Oxford reached a peak in 1715, when Nonconformist chapels and Quaker meeting houses were ransacked and the houses of prominent Dissenters were destroyed. The mob attacked the Baptist meeting room and rifled the whole house.

Presbyterians bought the site of what later became New Road Baptist chapel. It was put into the hands of trustees, all in London, who were left entirely free on doctrinal matters. The new meeting house, seating 250 people, was registered in 1721.

There is no record of Baptist meetings after that until about 1740, when they were holding only a week-day lecture in a private house. The remaining members attended either the Baptist chapel in Abingdon or the Presbyterian meetinghouse in Oxford. Baptists joined with other Dissenters and began meeting on the present site of New Road Baptist Church.

A congregation of Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists in Oxford in 1773 was in the charge of an eccentric minister, WA Clarke, who had been ordained by a Greek bishop around 1760 and had been baptised ‘most ridiculously … in his canonical robes.’

The few Baptists and Presbyterians in Oxford formally joined company at the New Road Church in 1780, and it was often known as the Independents’ Chapel. The members agreed on a groundbreaking Church Covenant in 1780, describing themselves as ‘a Protestant Catholic Church of Christ’.

One of the first pastors left after adopting ‘heterodox views’ and the pulpit was ill supplied until James Hinton was appointed in 1787. Hinton believed only in adult baptism and was a Calvinist. But the principle of open communion caused occasional divisions between Baptists and those who agreed with the baptism of children. There was a failed attempt in 1795-1797 to set up a separate Strict Baptist chapel.

Yet, during Hinton’s time, church attendance increased. The crowded evening services in the 1780s attracted undergraduates, who behaved so riotously that the university forbade them to attend. Membership increased from 25 in 1787 to 270 in 1821, and the number of ‘hearers; rose from 130 to 800. The meeting house was twice enlarged, and two extra deacons were appointed in the early 1800s.

Hinton’s health began to fail in 1811 and a succession of assistants was appointed. After he died in 1823, his successors were unable to hold together the varied factions in the open communion, and by 1836 membership had fallen to 150.

Some 28 members left for a new Congregational church in George Street in the 1830s, and others left for the Adullam chapel, a new Baptist chapel on Commercial Road, built in 1832 for and largely at the expense of HB Bulteel, a former curate of Saint Ebbe’s Church. For many years, the Adullam chapel was the largest nonconformist chapel in Oxford, seating 800 people.

Meanwhile, in the New Road chapel, disagreements continued between the deacons and the minister, who was accused of mismanaging finances and leaning towards Anglicanism. These lead to a further secession to the Congregationalists in 1853 of 23 members, including all the deacons.

Most of those former members returned after the minister resigned later in 1853. But dissension continued and membership to fell further until the appointment of James Dann as pastor (1882-1916).

The New Road Baptist Church is a grade II listed building. It is a large rectangular stone building and incorporates parts of the Presbyterian chapel of 1721, which was rebuilt as a new two-storey building in 1798. Major enlargements and improvements took place in 1819, when the baptistry was added, as well the pillars and architrave on the façade.

The church was altered again in 1982, when the striking central cross was installed, a suite of rooms extending over four floors was added, as well as a coffee shop known as the Mint House because of its proximity to the site of Charles I's Royal Mint in New Inn Hall Street. This Mint House building was also the site of the original Quaker Meeting House in Oxford.

Bonn Square, Oxford … the forecourt of the church was opened in 2008 to form part of the new Bonn Square development project (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The forecourt of the church was opened in 2008 to form part of the new Bonn Square development project, placing the church at the heart of one of Oxford’s public squares.

The church says it welcome everyone into the community. ‘Nobody is excluded from participation in its life on the grounds of their age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, physical and mental abilities, neurodiversity, education, class, or economic status. We welcome and affirm those who express their gender and sexuality in every way that reflects faithfulness in love.’

‘We are committed to pursuing justice in every area of social life, and working for peace as we are able,’ they church says. ‘Our welcoming of everyone includes those who may struggle with our commitment to full inclusiveness. We believe God calls each of us to live together in the community of Christ regardless of our differences.’

The Revd Jon Keyworth has been the minister at New Road since 2019. The Revd Professor Paul S Fiddes, who is also involved in the church, is closely associated with Regent’s Park College, Oxford, where has been a fellow (1972-1989), Principal (1989-2007), Professorial Research Fellow (2007–2018) and Senior Research Fellow (2018). He has chaired the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxford (1996-1998), and became Professor of Systematic Theology in Oxford in 2002. He is an ordained Baptist minister and a canon emeritus of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

Sunday services in New Road Baptist Church are at 10:30 am, with coffee served after.

New Road Baptist Church in Oxford is half-hidden from view by the tables of the Art Café and the steps of Bonn Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary
Time with French
saints and writers
2: 4 February 2024

Francis Le Jau (1665-1717) … a French-born Anglican priest who studied at TCD and became an SPG (USPG) missionary in South Carolina

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of celebrations of Christmas and Epiphany came to an end on Friday with the Feast of the Presentation or Candlemas (2 February), and we are in Ordinary Time, the time between that season and the 40 days of Lent. Today is the Second Sunday before Lent.

n the past, this Sunday was known as Sexagesima, one of those odd-sounding Latin names once used in the Book of Common Prayer for the Sundays between Candlemas and Lent: Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima. Later this morning I hope to be part of the choir singing at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford.

Charlotte and I are planning to visit Paris later this week. So, in these 11 days in Ordinary Time, my reflections each morning are drawing on the lives of 11 French saints and spiritual writers.

I admitted yesterday that I have never been very comfortable with many aspects of French spirituality, such as Sacre Coeur and the political associations of devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the way Joan of Arc has become a symbol of the far-right in France, Bernard’s preaching of the Crusades, or the way Calvin is read today by modern neo-Calvinists. I realise I need to broaden my reading in French spirituality, and so I have turned to 11 figures or writers you might not otherwise expect. They include men and women, Jews and Christians, immigrants and emigrants, monks and philosophers, Catholics and Protestants, and even a few Anglicans.

Before today begins to get busy, I am taking some time for reflection, prayer and reading this way:

1, A reflection on a French saint or writer in spirituality;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The Long Room in the Library in Trinity College Dublin … Francis Le Jau studied theology at TCD (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

French saints and writers: 2, Francis Le Jau (1665-1715):

Francis Le Jau (1665-1717) was a French-born Anglican priest who studied theology at Trinity College Dublin and became a missionary in South Carolina with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), now USPG.

Le Jau was born into a French Huguenot family in Angiers in 1665. At the age of 20, he fled France during the persecution of Huguenots after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, became an Anglican and studied in Trinity College Dublin (MA 1693, BD 1696, DD 1700).

The Duke of Ormond had made Dublin a safe place for Huguenot refugees, and there Le Jau worked from 1695 on behalf of William King, Bishop Derry and later Archbishop of Dublin, to obtain many books in French, including works published in Paris, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

Meanwhile, the Irish Nonjuror, Canon Charles Leslie (1650-1722), Chancellor of Connor, had fled to Paris after he was deprived of his Church offices for refusing to take the new oath of loyalty to William of Orange after the Battle of the Boyne. He was said to have been named after Charles I, who was executed the year before Leslie was born.

From Dublin, Le Jau moved to London, where he was installed a canon of Saint Paul’s Cathedral (1696-1700). In 1700, the year he received his doctoral degree (DD) from TCD, he moved to St Christopher’s Island, where he served for 18 months at the request of Henry Compton, Bishop of London from 1675 to 1713. King became Archbishop of Dublin in 1703, and Le Jau continued to correspond with him about books published in France until 1704.

Meanwhile, SPG was founded in 1701, and from 1706 until his death in 1717 Le Jau was a missionary with SPG in to South Carolina, based in Goose Creek. He arrived in South Carolina in December 1706 and wrote numerous letters to SPG describing in the colony as well as his own activities. He describes the colonists celebrating their victory over an attempted French invasion from 27 to 31 August 1706.

Le Jau lived through both the Tuscarora War (1711) and the Yamasee War (1715) in South Carolina During the Yamasee War, a coalition led by the Catawba tribe attacked his home area of Goose Creek and many his parishioners were involved in the fighting.

At the height of the Yamasee War, Le Jau’s family went to live in Charleston with Gideon Johnsons, a fellow missionary and former classmate in TCD. During that time, Henriette Johnson, a painter who shared a French Huguenot background, painted a portrait of Le Jau. Le Jau’s son went on to serve as an aide de camp under General Maurice Moore for the remainder of the Yamasee War.

In his letters to SPG, Le Jau repeatedly refers to the ‘Savannah tongue’ – probably the Shawnee language – as a trade language understood from the Carolinas to Canada. He believed there was a potential use for missionary work, and sent a copy of the Lord’s Prayer in the Savannah language to the SPG. He also refers to the Creek language.

Many of his letters provide an insight into the difficulties SPG missionaries faced in the colonies: the dangers and cost of the journey across the Atlantic, fears of bad weather, piracy and war, and the many setbacks they faced when trying to establish homes and churches after their arrival. Le Jau wrote frequently about his family’s difficulty in acclimatising to a hostile environment, endemic sickness in the area, and attempts to sustain his household with limited assistance from his parishioners.

Le Jau was dependent on the financial and material resource of SPG, as well as local networks of professional support from other neighbouring clergy. But his limited material comfort was underwritten by his purchase of three slaves to help maintain his household.

He was strongly critical of the treatment of Native Americans by the colonists in South Carolina. He describes a plantation owner in Goose Creek burning a Native American slave to death. However, his exploitation of enslaved people within his own household sits uneasily alongside his frequent denunciations of the cruel behaviour he had observed in neighbouring slaveowners. He compromised with slaveowners who were concerned that baptised slaves would seek freedom and equality, and composed a mandatory declaration for slave converts that their baptism was not ‘out of any design’ to free themselves ‘from the Duty and Obedience you owe to your master while you live, but merely for the good of your soul.’

Francis Le Jau died on 10 September 1717. Before he arrived in South Carolina, one eighth of the colony’s white population was of Huguenot descent in 1690; after his death, those numbers had increased and reached 20% in 1722.

For many years, Leslie was the Anglican chaplain at the Jacobite court in St Germainen-Laye. Meanwhile, Charles Leslie returned to Paris in 1717, the year Le Lau died, and published a two folio-volume edition of his Theological Works in 1719. Leslie returned to Ireland in his last days, and died at Castle Leslie, Co Monaghan, in 1722. Leslie later influenced some of the writings of John Henry Newman and the Tractarians. Over 13 pages of the British Museum library catalogue are devoted to his books and pamphlets, making Leslie and Le Jau early Irish literary and Anglican links with Paris.

Saint James Church, Goose Creek … Francis Le Jau was a missionary with SPG based in Goose Creek, South Carolina

John 1: 1-14 (NRSVA):

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

‘In the beginning was the Word’ (John 1: 1) … pages from Saint John’s Gospel, the first complete handwritten and illuminated Bible since the Renaissance, in an exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 4 February 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 ‘Gender Justice in Christ.’ This theme is introduced today by Ellen McMibanga, Zambia Anglican Council Outreach Programme:

Many men and women are holding hands to put a stop to abuse in households and the community as the call for gender justice continues to be raised by humanity.

‘Gender equality is the goal that will help abolish poverty,’ asserts Graça Machel (founder of the Graça Machel Trust and a member of The Elders), ‘which will create more equal economies, fairer societies, and happier men, women and children.’

By accepting that men, women and children are equally made by God, freely reconciled by Christ, and given spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit, we can establish and uphold justice. The call for gender justice serves as a reminder to everyone to treat one another with respect and love, honouring the reality that God loves us (II Corinthians 5: 17). ‘There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3:28).

In order to promote gender equity and eradicate injustices that are being practised in our homes, communities and countries, it is the responsibility of the Church and all of us.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (4 February 2024, the Second Sunday before Lent) invites us to pray in these words:

Loving God,
Let us renew our love for all of humanity.
May we focus on spreading
the faith, hope and love
you give to us.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things,
now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our creator,
by your gift
the tree of life was set at the heart of the earthly paradise,
and the bread of life at the heart of your Church:
may we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
give us reverence for all creation
and respect for every person,
that we may mirror your likeness
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection (Rashi)

Continued Tomorrow (Eugénie Mouchon-Niboyet)

Francis Le Jau’s exploitation of enslaved people in his own household sits uneasily beside his denunciations of the cruelty of neighbouring slaveowners

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

‘The Object’ is a curious
sculpture in Milton Keynes
with a perplexing scale and
visual impact on viewers

‘The Object’ (1995-1997) by Dhruva Mistry at the Milton Keynes Gallery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Tucked away in its own pocket ‘sculpture park’ behind Milton Keynes Gallery and the Theatre, ‘The Object’ (1995-1997) is an interesting sculpture by the Indian designer and sculptor Dhruva Mistry. I first noticed it after a recent visit to Campbell Park as I was heading for a coffee in Milton Keynes Gallery.

‘The Object’ is made from stainless steel and was developed by Dhruva Mistry from earlier works in which he combined images of the human figure with geometric forms, or used an object – such as a chair – to represent human presence.

In ‘The Object’, the sculptor has created a curious architectural structure of planes, crystalline forms and cut-outs that allude to fairytale palaces, dream castles or follies.

‘The Object’ is a curious architectural structure with a perplexing scale, quality and visual effect on viewers. As you move around the sculpture, perspectives become distorted and expectations are confounded. Although there seems to be an entrance, physical entry is impossible. In some ways, it works as space is contorted as in the drawings by the Dutch graphic artist MC Escher (1898-1972), with their optical illusions.

Space in ‘The Object’ is contorted as in drawings by MC Escher, with their optical illusions (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Indian-born sculptor Dhruva Mistry came to England in his early 20s to further his career as a sculptor. His work combines the rich imagery and narrative of Indian art with the influences of western sculptural traditions. His commissions have included large public works such as his sculptural pieces for Victoria Square, Birmingham (1992-1993). He has had over 25 solo exhibitions and has been included in significant national and international shows. His works are in public and private collections in Britain, Japan and India.

Professor Dhruva Mistry was born in Kanjari in Gujarat in 1957 and studied sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Baroda (1974-1981), and the Royal College of Art, London (1981–1983). He was the artist in residence at Kettle’s Yard Gallery in Cambridge with a fellowship at Churchill College, Cambridge (1984-1985). He returned to India as Professor of Sculpture and Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts in University of Baroda (1999-2002).

Mistry’s work reflects individual curiosity and personal interest, drawing inspiration from a diversity of civilisations and cultures, including Indian, Chinese, Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek, European, Mayan, Oceanic, African, tribal, folk, old, new and modern.

‘The Object’ was exhibited at the Goodwood Sculpture Park in Sussex in 1995-1997 and is now at the Milton Keyne Art Gallery.

‘The Object’ is tucked away in its own pocket ‘sculpture park’ behind Milton Keynes Gallery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)