22 July 2024

How Castle End Mission
in Cambridge hosted
a theological course and
became a Chinese church

The former Castle End Mission and Working Men’s Institute, now home to the Cambridge Chinese Christian Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

One of the churches I visited during my visits to Cambridge this month is the Cambridge Chinese Christian Church, which has been housed since in the former Castle End Mission and Working Men’s Institute, on the corner of Pound Hill and Saint Peter’s Street.

This former mission was also the home of the Eastern Region Ministry Course from 1997 to 2006, when it was known as the East Anglian Ministerial Training Course and then the Eastern Region Ministry Course.

The mission was founded 140 years ago on 12 January 1884 as an educational centre, and from an early date was connected with the Congregational Church, later the United Reformed Church.

The mission was founded by Frances Whibley, the wife of a local businessman, Mark Whibley. The couple lived at Hurst on Milton Road, and Frances Whibley started the Castle End Men’s Morning School in a cottage in Kettle’s Yard.

Frances Whibley was a founding member of the Victoria Road Congregational Church and wanted to provide for the religious and educational needs of the poor. By 1884, she had sufficient funds to build the Mission Hall. Undergraduates helped her with the teaching.

The foundation stone of Castle End Mission and Working Men’s Institute was laid by Professor James Stuart in 1884 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The mission and institute building was built in 1884. It is a two-storey building, built in red brick with limestone banding and with a concrete pantile roof. The foundation stone was laid by Professor James Stuart (1843-1913) of Trinity College Cambridge on 6 March 1884.

James Stuart was Professor of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics at Cambridge University from 1875 and was interested in popularising scientific topics and published several books on the subject. He was the Liberal MP for Hackney from 1884 and for Hoxton from 1885 to 1900, and for Sunderland in 1906-1910. Vanity Fair described him as is ‘a wicked Radical, whom the Water Companies hate’.

As a memorial to him in 1915, his wife and sisters-in-law erected Stuart Court, a block of 22 flats, to rehouse families made homeless by a flood in Norwich in 1912.

The Castle End Mission was built in an area that was one of the most impoverished in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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.

The mission hall was run by members of the Emmanuel Congregational Church on Trumpington Street with the help of undergraduates, among them Own Seaman, later the editor of Punch.

In addition to religious services, classes were arranged, clubs were formed, and, in bad winters, a soup kitchen was opened. The mission was also used by local drama and music groups and religious fellowships.

The first wedding at Castle End Mission took place in 1939. At their wedding, Bert Harrison of Birmingham and Violet Cullom of 6 Darwin Drive were given a guard of honour formed by the ‘Mission Campaign girls’.

The Castle End Mission was the Cambridge home of the Eastern Region Ministry Course from 1997 to 2006 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The mission became home to the Eastern Region Ministry Course from 1997 to 2006, when it was known as the East Anglian Ministerial Training Course and then the Eastern Region Ministry Course.

The course was founded in 1979 as the East Anglian Ministerial Training Course when the Ely Training Scheme merged with the Norwich Ordination Course. Its founders wanted to establish a ‘theological college without walls’ to train ordinands for the dioceses of Ely, Norwich and St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, as well as candidates of the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church.

The course developed links with the Dioceses of Peterborough and Chelmsford as well as the Diocese in Europe in the early 1990s, and became a constituent part of the Cambridge Theological Federation in 1993.

The Hind Report in 2003 introduced many changes to theological education, and a larger Eastern Region was formed in 2005 to include the Diocese of St Albans.

As the training course for the new region, the Eastern Region Ministry Course was formed as an amalgamation of EAMTC with part of the St Albans and Oxford Ministry Course, and partnership links were formed with the Diocesan Ministry Courses in Norwich and St Edmundsbury.

Over the course of seven years the responsibility for formation of ordinands became that of ERMC, leaving Reader and LLM training the responsibility of the dioceses. The reader and LLM training courses of the dioceses of Ely, Europe, St Edmundsbury, St Albans and Norwich work in close partnership with the ERMC but retain their separate identity.

As result of changes in their ministerial training policy, the United Reformed Church and the Methodist Church withdrew from regional training courses in 2006 and 2014, and more recently the Diocese of Chelmsford formed a new partnership with Saint Mellitus College. Despite these changes ERMC, maintain its ecumenical dimension.

The course established a full-time non-residential pathway to ordination in 2016, with its first context hub in Bedford, which later moved to Cambridge.

The Revd Dr Malory Makower, the first principal of EAMTC, was a graduate of Trinity College Dublin. He was also Priest-in-Charge of Lode, Cambridgeshire, and the course was located in his spacious vicarage there. When the Revd John Kemp was appointed the first full-time principal in 1984, EAMTC moved to Cambridge and has been located there ever since.

For its first few years in Cambridge, EAMTC had its offices in Westcott House, and then from 1997 to 2006 it was located in the Castle End Mission in Pound Hill. EAMTC moved from the Castle End Mission to offices in Wesley House on Jesus Lane in 2006, when the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies was also based there.

Wesley House underwent large scale refurbishment in 2014, and the course moved again, this time to Westcott House, across the street on Jesus Lane. The Revd Alexander Jensen, a former colleague in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, was appointed Principal in 2016. A year later, in 2017, the course moved to its present offices at Westminster College, Cambridge.

Meanwhile, the Castle End Mission closed in 2014, the trust decided to put the building on the market in 2016, and the sale was completed on 2018. The mission was wound up in 2019, and its funds were distributed between a number of churches in Cambridge, including Saint Giles’ Parish (Church of England), Cambridge Methodist Circuit, Saint Andrew’s Street Baptist Church and Downing Place United Reformed Church.

Today, the former mission on Pound Hill is the home of Cambridge Chinese Christian Church. The church was founded in 1997 and Sunday services are at 10 am (Cantonese) and 2 pm (Mandarin).

The Cambridge Chinese Christian Church was formed in 1997 and moved to Castle End in 2018 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024:
74, Monday 22 July 2024,
Saint Mary Magdalene

Saint Mary Magdalene at Easter Morning … a sculpture by Mary Grant at the west door of Lichfield Cathedral (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) yesterday. Today, the Church Calendar celebrates the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene.

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.

Μη μου άπτου, ‘Noli me Tangere,’ an icon by Mikhail Damaskinos in the Museum of Christian Art in the former church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 20: 1-2, 11-18 (NRSVA):

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look[a] into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14 When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’ 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

A modern icon or Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene by Alexandra Kaouki in Rethymnon (Photograph © Alexandra Kaouki)

This morning’s reflection:

On my way back down the mountains from the Monastery of Arkadi to the coast of Rethymnon in Crete, I have sometimes stopped briefly to see the small church in Nea Magnesia that is dedicated to Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene.

This is one of only two churches dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene on the island of Crete.

Nea Magnesia is 12 km east of Rethymnon, near Skaleta and off the road to Panormos. Today it is fast becoming part of the resort facilities building up east of Rethymnon. But in the 1920s, this village was first settled by Greek-speaking people who had been expelled from their homes in western Anatolia.

They arrived in Crete with their Greek language, traditions and culture and dedicated their church to Saint Mary Magdalene, whose feast in the Church calendar, east and west, falls today [22 July].

The other church in Crete dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene is an impressive Russian-style church on Dagli Street in Chania, with an onion dome and surrounded by a beautiful garden in the district of Chalepa. The church was built in 1901-1903 by Prince George, the High Commissioner of Crete.

The church was funded by the Czarist Russia and was opened in 1903 in the presence of Queen Olga, Prince George, Bishop Evgenios of Crete and a small number of invited guests.

I often pass Chalepa on my way to the and from the airport. With its imposing mansions and luxury villas, Chalepa is a beautiful part of Chania, east of the city on the coastal road to the airport and Akrotiri.

Chalepa was the venue for some of the most important political events in Crete in the 19th century. Here Prince George had his palace as the High Commissioner or governor of the semi-autonomous Cretan state in the closing days of Ottoman rule, and here too the Great Powers had their consulates.

Chalepa was also the home of Eleftherios Venizelos, who played a decisive role as Prime Minister of Greece during a critical time in Greek history in the early 20th century. The family house was built by his father, Kyriakos Venizelos, in 1877. Today, his family home houses the Eleftherios K Venizelos National Research and Study Foundation, which plans to turn the house into a museum.

An icon of Saint Mary Magdalene at the Resurrection, Μη μου άπτου (Noli me Tangere) by Mikhail Damaskinos, is one of the important exhibits at the Museum of Christian Art in the former church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion.

This icon dates from ca 1585-1591. Initially it was in the Monastery of Vrondissi and was transferred to old church of Saint Menas in Iraklion in 1800.

One of the most inspirational icons of Saint Mary Magdalene I have seen in Crete is an icon by Alexandra Kaouki in her old workshop near the Fortezza in Rethymnon.

According to Greek tradition, Saint Mary Magdalene evangelised the island of Zakynthos in 34 AD on her way to Rome with Saint Mary of Cleopas. The village of Maries on the island is said to be named after both Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Mary of Cleopas. A relic of her left hand is said to be preserved in the monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos, where she is revered as a co-founder of the monastery.

During the Middle Ages, Saint Mary Magdalene was regarded in Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman, but these claims are not supported in any of the four Gospels.

Instead, the Gospels tell us she travelled with Jesus as one of his followers, and that she was a witness to his Crucifixion and his Resurrection, Indeed, she is named at least 12 times in the four Gospels, more times than most of the apostles. Two Gospels specifically name her as the first person to see Christ after the Resurrection (see Mark 16:9 and John 20).

Back in 2016, Pope Francis recognised Saint Mary Magdalene and her role as the first to witness Christ’s resurrection and as a ‘true and authentic evangeliser’ when he raised her commemoration today [22 July] from a memorial to a feast in the church’s liturgical calendar.

The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship issued a decree formalising the decision, and both the decree and the article were titled Apostolorum Apostola (‘Apostle of the Apostles’).

Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary of the congregation, said that in celebrating ‘an evangelist who proclaims the central joyous message of Easter,’ Saint Mary Magdalene’s feast day is a call for all Christians to ‘reflect more deeply on the dignity of women, the new evangelisation and the greatness of the mystery of divine mercy.’

Archbishop Roche said that in giving Saint Mary Magdalene the honour of being the first person to see the empty tomb and the first to listen to the truth of the resurrection, Christ ‘has a special consideration and mercy for this woman, who manifests her love for him, looking for him in the garden with anguish and suffering.’

The decision means Saint Mary Magdalene has the same level of feast as that given to the celebration of the apostles and makes her a ‘model for every woman in the church.’

The Church of Aghia Magdalini or Saint Mary Magdalene, in Nea Magnesia, near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 22 July 2024, Saint Mary Magdalene):

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 yesterday 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 (Monday 22 July 2024, Saint Mary Magdalene) invites us to pray:

We thank you that Mary Magdalene, who followed Christ in love, was the first to announce to his apostles that he had risen from the dead.

‘Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene’ (Mark 16: 9) … a statue of Saint Mary Magdalen above the gateway at Magdalen College, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Collect:

Almighty God, whose Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of mind and body and called her to be a witness to his resurrection: forgive our sins and heal us by your grace, that we may serve you in the power of his risen life; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of life and love, whose risen Son called Mary Magdalene by name and sent her to tell of his resurrection to his apostles: in your mercy, help us, who have been united with him in this eucharist, to proclaim the good news that he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

The tower of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalen in Stony Stratford … originally a chapel-of-ease for the parish of Wolverton (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

Saint Mary Magdalene Church, Stony Stratford, opened in 1958 and was consecrated in 1984 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)