Patrick Comerford
Today is Trinity Sunday (15 June 2025), and this year we are celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in the year 325 and the agreement that became the Nicene Creed, with its clear understanding of the Trinitarian faith of the Church.
I thought it might be interesting this afternoon to introduce 12 cathedrals and churches that I know or that I have personal links with and that are dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
1, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Cathedral of the Holy Trinity):
Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where I was a canon for 10 years from 2007 to 2017, and where I was ordained 25 years ago, is formally named the Cathedral of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.
It is the cathedral of the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and is one of two mediaeval cathedrals, the other being Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.
Christ Church Cathedral was founded in the early 11th century under the Viking king Sitric Silkenbeard. The cathedral was originally staffed by secular clergy, but the Benedictines were later introduced. Christ Church was converted to a priory of the Regular Order of Arrosian Canons (Reformed Augustinian Rule) by the second Archbishop of Dublin, Saint Laurence O’Toole, in 1163.
The Priory of the Holy Trinity was headed by an Augustinian prior, who ranked as the second figure in the diocese, and not a dean, until re-establishment in 1541. The Priory of the Holy Trinity became the wealthiest religious house in Ireland, holding estates of over 40 sq km (10,000 acres) in Co Dublin alone, including Grangegorman, Glasnevin and Clonkeen, now Deansgrange.
At the Dissolution of the monastic houses during the Tudor Reformation, the Priory of the Holy Trinity was abolished in 1539. The Prior and Canons of Holy became secular clergy, to be known as the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church. The Prior and Sub-Prior became the Dean and Precentor, the Seneschal and Precentor became the Chancellor and Vicar-Choral, and the Sub-Precentor or Succentor and Sacristan, became the Treasurer and Vicar-Choral of the new foundation.
A partial collapse in the 16th century left the cathedral in poor shape and the building was extensively renovated and rebuilt in the late 19th century, giving it the form it has today, including the tower, flying buttresses, and distinctive covered footbridge.
I was ordained deacon there in 2000 and priest in 2001 by Archbishop Walton Empey, and I was appointed to the chapter by Archbishop John Neill in 2007. During my 10 years as a canon of Christ Church, I served on the cathedral board, on the arts and music committees, introduced many events, including exhibitions of icons and film evenings, occasionally sang with the choir, and regularly presided and preached at the Cathedral Eucharist as a canon-in-residence.
I was most recently involved in the life of Christ Church Cathedral in May 2023, when I spent some days making a documentary with a television station in Montenegro about the unusual story of Prince Milo, a claimant to Balkan royalty who lived in Dublin and Connemara and who is buried in Limerick.
2, Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick:
For five years, I was priest-in-charge of the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes in the Diocese of Limerick, including Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (2017-2022). Holy Trinity Church was built at the west end of Rathkeale in 1831, but there has been a church on the site since the 13th century. Along with the hilltop pinnacle of Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, the tower of Holy Trinity forms a notable skyline in Rathkeale that is visible for many miles.
A comprehensive list of Rectors of Rathkeale survives from the mid-15th century, when Dennis O’Farrelly (Offeralye) was Rector from 1459 to 1471.
It is believed the present church was designed by the Limerick-based Pain brothers, James Pain (1779-1877), whose other works in the Rathkeale group of parishes include Castletown Church and the former Rectory in Askeaton, and George Pain (1792-1838). The church is the third to be built on the site and may incorporate parts of a church that was standing there in 1825.
The simple and regular form of the nave and the single-cell with tower design are characteristic of Board of First Fruits churches of the era. Samuel Lewis wrote in 1837: ‘The church is a very handsome edifice, in the early English style, with a lofty square tower, embattled and crowned with crocketed pinnacles: it was erected in 1831, near the site of the former church, and is built of black marble raised from a quarry on the river’s bank near the town …’
Funds were raised in 1877 for a new chancel, so the church is a composite of work carried out throughout the 19th century.
The carved stone features add artistic interest to the façade, as do the stained glass windows by Catherine O’Brien: the east window depicting the Parable of the Sower (1931) and the double lancet window in the south nave depicting Saint Paul and Saint Luke (1937). The variety of window openings includes Tudor and Gothic Revival styles.
The churchyard is the burial place for many Palatine families who moved to this area in the early 18th century. They were brought to the Rathkeale area by in 1709 by Thomas Southwell, whose family inherited some of the old Billingsley and Dowdall estate in the Rathkeale area. The names of the Palatine families buried here include Bovenizer, Teskey, Shier and Sparling. The most imposing memorial is the Massy vault, built in 1800 by James FitzGerald Massy of Stoneville in 1800 and restored by Lucy Massy in 1907.
3, The Chapel, Trinity College Dublin:
While I was on the staff of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, I was an Adjunct Assistant Professor in TCD, sitting on academic and staff committees and Courts of Examiners, supervising research and overseeing examinations. Group photographs of the BTh and MTh graduates were taken each year on the steps of the chapel in TCD. I was also a visiting lecturer on other degree courses.
I received a post-graduate Diploma in Ecumenics at TCD in 1984, and studied classical Greek there in 1987. Later, I was twice the Select Preacher in the Chapel, and I have chaired and been the secretary of the Dublin University Far Eastern Mission (DUFEM).
Overlooking Front Square, at the heart of the TCD campus, the chapel was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1798 to form the north range of Parliament Square. Chambers was George III’s architect, and he also designed the Examination Hall on the south side of Parliament Square. The building work was overseen by Christopher Myers and his son Graham Myers, and it is likely that Myers heavily influenced the end design.
The chapel and the theatre are similar in form, creating a pleasing balance to the square and evoking a sense of Palladian symmetry with the two buildings serving as end pavilions. However, the chapel is both longer and narrower.
The classical elegance of the design is seen throughout the chapel, particularly in the stonework carved by George Darley and Richard Cranfield. Inside, the classical motif continues in the plasterwork by Michael Stapleton, spiral staircases by Robert Mallet, and the organ gallery carved by Richard Cranfield. Henry Hugh, a general carpenter throughout the project, may have worked on the pews.
The 19th century saw significant modifications to the interior, with stained glass by Clayton and Bell and Mayer & Company installed and polychrome floor tiles to designs by John McCurdy added.
The chapel has been ecumenical since 1970. In addition to the Anglican chaplain, Canon Paul Arbuthnot, who is known as the Dean of Residence, there are Roman Catholic and Methodist chaplains.
4, The Church of Aghia Triada, Platanias, Rethymnon:
The Church of Holy Trinity or Aghia Triada (Αγία Τριάδα) in the suburban village of Platanias, is just 100 metres south of long sandy beach that stretches for kilometres east of Rethymnon. I have been visiting Rethymnon almost annually since the mid-1980s. I stayed in the suburban areas of Platanias and Tsesmes, east of Rethymnon, from 2015 to 2021, and I visited the villages and friends there again when I was staying in Rethymnon at Easter (April 2025) and the year before (April 2024).
This area is a mix of suburban, commercial, and slowly developing tourism. The shops and supermarkets cater primarily for the local residents, but there is a number of small hotels and apartment blocks where I have stayed, including La Stella, Varvara’s Diamond, and Julia Apartments, and restaurants and cafés where I receive a warm welcome each time I return.
These two villages near Rethymnon have merged almost seamlessly over the years, and although they have two churches, they form one parish, served by one priest, Father Dimitrios Tsakpinis. These are recently-built parish churches: the church in Platanias dates from 1959 and Saint Nektarios Church in Tsesmes from 1979. They are small, and in many ways, unremarkable churches, compared to the older, more historic churches in the old town of Rethymnon.
But when I have stayed in Platanias and Tsesmes, I have seen them as my parish churches, and I have always been welcomed warmly. The church in Platantias is dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
5, Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, Wiltshire:
Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, is on the eastern fringes of Calne in Wiltshire. For many generations, my family continued to regard Comberford in Staffordshire as our ancestral home, although my research shows convincingly that the name actually comes from the village of Quemerford.
Holy Trinity Church long post-dates the presence of the Quemerford family in this area. The church was built in 1852-1853 as a chapel of ease to Saint Mary’s Parish Church, Calne, to serve Quemerford and the areas east of Calne. The site was donated by Lord Lansdowne, and the building costs were met by Canon John Guthrie (1794-1865), Vicar of Calne (1835-1865), largely at his own expense. The churchyard became the parish graveyard because the one at Saint Mary’s was overfull. The Vicar of Calne appointed an assistant curate to serve Holy Trinity in Quemerford.
A chalice and a paten both hallmarked 1866 were given to the church by the curate assistant, the Revd JRA Chinnery-Haldane (1840-1906), later Bishop of Argyll and the Isles (1883-1906), and are still used today.
The church was designed by CH Gabriel and is tall, of coursed rubble and in the Decorated style. It has a west bell cote and spirelet and consists of a chancel with north vestry and a nave with south porch. The chancel is long, has tall south windows and diapering in relief on the sanctuary’s walls and is separated from the vestry by a traceried screen.
The chancel arch is high and wide, and the nave has an open timber roof with cusped trusses and wind-bracing.
Originally there was stained glass in the east window, but a fire in February 1970 caused major damage to the roof, destroying windows and the organ. The church was rededicated on 25 January 1972. The church was not licensed for marriages until 1990.
Today, Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, is part of the Benefice of Marden Vale in the Diocese of Salisbury, with Saint Mary’s, Calne, and Saint Peter’s, Blackland. The Team Rector is the Revd Caspar Bush; the Team Vicar is the Revd Sarah Errington.
6, Waterford’s two cathedrals:
Waterford City has two cathedrals dedicated to the Holy Trinity: the Church of Ireland cathedral on Cathedral Square – Christ Church Cathedral or, more formally, the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity; and the Roman Catholic cathedral on Barronstrand Street – Holy Trinity Cathedral. Both were designed by John Roberts, who shaped much of Georgian Waterford.
For a period in the 1640s, before the Cromwellian siege of Waterford in 1649-1650, the older Church of Ireland cathedral was used by the Roman Catholic diocese, when Patrick Comerford (1586-1652) was Bishop of Waterford and Lismore (1629-1652).
The copes, chasuble, dalmatic and other vestments he had used in Waterford, were long lost and disappeared for generations. A later bishop, John Brenan, claimed the ecclesiastical Patrick Comerford had taken the ‘ornaments’ of the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore to France.
The City Corporation decided to build a new Church of Ireland cathedral a century later. John Roberts built Christ Church Cathedral (1773-1792) on the site of Waterford’s mediaeval Gothic cathedral. He also built a new Roman Catholic cathedral on the site of the old Penal chapel on Barronstrand Street (1793-1796).
During the demolition of the older cathedral, the mediaeval vestments missing since Patrick Comerford left for France in 1651, were found in the crypt. In a gesture of ecumenical goodwill, centuries before ecumenism became standard practice, they were presented by Bishop Richard Chenevix to his Roman Catholic counterpart, Bishop Peter Creagh, and they are now kept in the Museum of Treasures in Waterford and the National Museum in Dublin.
Bishop Patrick Comerford is named twice in tablets in Holy Trinity Cathedral. One plaque lists him with other distinguished theologians, priests and bishops from Waterford, including Peter Lombard, Archbishop of Armagh, James White, the Jesuits Michael Wadding, Peter Wadding and Ambrose Wadding, Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashel, and the historian Geoffrey Keating. A second plaque lists him among the Bishops of Waterford, between Patrick Walsh and John Brenan, who accused him of taking the cathedral vestments with him when he left Waterford.
Bishop Patrick Comerford died at Nantes on 10 March 1652, aged 66, and was buried in Nantes Cathedral with full episcopal honours.
The family tradition continued in the city’s cathedrals: Edward Comerford was the organist at Holy Trinity Cathedral until he died in 1894.
7, The Chapel, Trinity College, Cambridge:
Trinity College Cambridge, founded by Henry VIII in 1546 and one of the oldest and largest colleges in Cambridge. Trinity College Chapel, which dates from the mid-16th century, was begun in 1554-1555 by Queen Mary and was completed in 1567 by Elizabeth I.
The architectural style is Tudor-Gothic, with Perpendicular tracery and pinnacles. The roof is of an earlier style than the rest of the building, and may have been re-used from the chapel of King’s Hall, the college that preceded Trinity on this site. Only the walls and roof date from the Tudor era.
The chapel has memorials to the Cambridge Triumvirate – Brooke Foss Westcott, Joseph Barber Lightfoot and Fenton Hort – and to Isaac Newton, Bishop John Robinson, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Charles Villiers Stanford, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Bertrand Russell, Thomas Babington Macaulay and AE Housman.
The chapel has a fine organ, originally built by ‘Father’ Smith in 1694. Many alterations were made over the years until, in 1913, an almost totally new organ was built. Some of the pipes were so large that they would not fit in the organ loft and instead had to stand in a corner of the ante-chapel. In 1976 the present mechanical-action instrument, based on the surviving pipework and within the original cases, was completed by the Swiss firm Metzler Söhne. There are regular recitals on Sundays during term time.
The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, is composed of around 30 male and female Choral Scholars and two Organ Scholars, all undergraduates of the college. As well as singing the liturgy in the chapel, the choir has an extensive programme of performances and recordings.
The Dean of Chapel is the Revd Professor Michael Banner, and the Director of Music is Dr Steven Grahl. Trinity College has two Chaplains, the Revd Anne Strauss and the Revd Sophie Young, who share responsibility for pastoral care, as well as leading daily worship and running many groups and activities.
8, The Chapel, Trinity College, Oxford
Trinity College, Oxford is formally the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight). The college was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas Pope, on the site of the former Durham College, home to Benedictine monks from Durham Cathedral.
Durham College was originally dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Saint Cuthbert, and the Trinity, and Trinity College takes its name from the last part of this dedication.
The main entrance to Trinity College is on Broad Street, between Balliol College and Blackwell’s bookshop, and opposite Turl Street. The rear of the college backs onto Saint John’s College, and has entrances on both Saint Giles’ and Parks Road. As well as its four major quadrangles, the college also has a large lawn and gardens, including a small area of woodland. Despite its large physical size, the college is relatively small, with about 400 students.
Durham Quadrangle, the oldest part of Trinity College, occupies the site of the mediaeval Durham College, founded in the late 13th century as a house of studies for Benedictine monks from Durham Cathedral. Durham College closed in 1544 and the buildings were bought by Sir Thomas Pope.
The four sides of Durham Quadrangle incorporate the Chapel, the Hall, the Library and an accommodation block. The Old Library, built in 1417, is the only surviving part of the original Durham College buildings. An effigy of Sir Thomas Pope looks down into the Quadrangle from above the Hall entrance.
Pope was a successful lawyer during the reign of Henry VIII. He amassed a fortune during the Reformation through his work as treasurer of the Court of Augmentations, which handled the revenues of the dissolved monasteries, including that at Durham. Pope was a prominent civil servant to Queen Mary I, and he founded Trinity College as a training house for Catholic priests.
Pope was married twice but had no surviving children. He intended that he, his parents, and both his wives would always be remembered in the prayers of Trinity’s members. Pope and his two wives Margaret and Elizabeth are buried in a tomb at the top left-hand corner of the chapel.
The chapel is relatively modest in size compared with its Oxford counterparts. It was built in 1691-1694 to replace the mediaeval chapel of Durham College. It was designed by Henry Aldrich, with advice from Sir Christopher Wren. It was consecrated in 1694.
The magnificent chapel interior is the product of a collaboration between the woodcarver Grinling Gibbons, the Huguenot artist Pierre Berchet, and a skilled but unknown plaster sculptor. It was the first chapel in Oxford designed on purely classical principles, and is a masterpiece of English baroque. The architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner called the chapel ‘one of the most perfect ensembles of the late 17th century in the whole country.’
Five different woods are used inside the chapel: walnut, oak, pear, lime, and Bermuda Cedar. The exquisite woodcarvings by Grinling Gibbons are among his finest work. This work includes intricately carved fruits and flowers in the panels between the chapel and ante chapel and in the limewood swags behind the altar. The carved gospel writers are perched above the screen and gaze upwards taking inspiration from the figure of Christ at the centre of Pierre Berchet’s painting in the ceiling of the Ascension.
Opposite Pope’s tomb is a concealed pew where once the college president’s wife could see the services and receive Holy Communion without being seen in an otherwise all-male college.
The only changes to the chapel since 1694 have been the addition of the organ loft and the stained glass. A fine window of Munich glass was inserted in the antechapel in 1870 as a memorial to the theologian Isaac Williams, and the remaining windows were filled in 1885 with figures of northern saints associated with Durham College.
The four statues on the Tower are attributed to Caius Cibber, and represent Geometry, Astronomy, Theology and Medicine.
After a year’s closure, Trinity’s Grade I listed chapel re-opened in April 2016 and, after a great deal of painstaking work, is once again resplendent in its refurbished glory. The chapel remains at the heart of college life. Services are held regularly in term, and Evensong is celebrated with the college choir at 6 pm on Sundays. The Revd Joshua Brocklesby, the College Chaplain and Fellow, was appointed in 2022. The chapel is open to members and visitors for prayer and reflection, and is used regularly for musical events. Members of the public are welcome at Evensong.
9, The Church of Aghia Triada, Kalamitsi Alexandrou, Crete:
The villages of Kalamitsi are two villages neighbouring villages in Crete that share the same name – Kalamitsi-Amigdali and Kalamitsi-Alexandrou – and they are sometimes known as the ‘divided village.’ About 140 people live round the year in Kalamitsi Alexandrou, and about 210 in Kalamitsi Amygdali, or 350 permanent residents between the two.
Where one village stops, the next village begins. They lie in the beautiful green Apokoronas area between Souda Bay and Rethymnon, and less than a 15-minute drive to Georgioupoli on the coast.
When I visited Kalamitssi a few years ago, it was to see the large, modern, cross-shaped Church of Aghia Triada or the Holy Trinity, behind the narrow streets in Kalamitsi Alexandrou. With its large narthex, and tall dome and belltowers, it can be seen for long distances across the surrounding countryside.
Unlike many churches in Greece of this shape, the dome has long remained undecorated, without any Pantocrator and the usual supporting frescoes. The walls and pillars of the church are largely undecorated too, without frescoes, and the old icons preserved in the church, many predating its building in the last century, are in wooden frames that are seldom seen in Greek churches.
These framed icons include, naturally, an icon of the Holy Trinity, and an icon of the Virgin Mary said to have been found in the foundations of an earlier church when the present church was being built. The top of the iconostasis or icon screen is crowned with a verse from Saint John’s Gospel that begins: ‘I am the light of the world …’ The central door of the iconostasis has an image portraying Christ present in the Eucharist, as part of a symbolic presentation of the Holy Trinity, with the Holy Spirit represented by the image of a dove above, and above that the all-seeing eye of God the Father.
10, The Monastery of Chryssoskalitíssa, Elafonisi, Crete:
The Monastery of Chryssoskalítíssa (Μονή Χρυσοσκαλιτίσσας), at the south-west tip of Crete, is perched on rocks above the lagoon of Elafonisi and is 35 metres high, overlooking the Libyan Sea. This monastery once had a community of 200. But like many monasteries in Crete, numbers have dwindled and today there is only one nun and one monk.
The monastery, which dates from the 13th century, is dedicated to the Holy Trinity (Agia Triada) and the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (Koimisis Theotokou). But the popular name comes from a local tradition that one step in a set of 98 leading up to the monastery appears as a golden step (chryssí skála) to those who are pure of heart.
The monastery celebrates its feast on 15 August (Δεκαπενταυγουστος, Dekapendavgoustos). It was built during the Venetian era on the site of Saint Nicholas Monastery. Before the first monastery was built, there was another church on the site dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.
It is said the staircase and the golden step were sold to the Turks to pay off taxes demanded by the Sultan. The legend also says that 200 years ago, at Easter 1824, after the massacre of Christians by the Ottomans of Ibrahim Pasha on Elafonísi, Turkish soldiers went to the monastery with plans to plunder the place. At the entrance to the monastery, however, they were attacked by a swarm of bees that saved the monastery from looting.
The church seen today was built in 19th century. The monastery was dissolved in 1894, along with other monasteries on the island, but was re-established in 1940.
During the Nazi occupation of Crete, several resistance fighters were given refuge there. German soldiers expelled the monks and occupied the monastery in 1943. When the Nazi forces left, the monks returned to the monastery.
Elafonísi (Ελαφονήσι, ‘deer island’), also known as the ‘Pearl of the West,’ is a popular destination for day trippers. No buildings are allowed on the lagoon or on the island, which helps to keep the feeling that this is a wilderness away from everything.
11, The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Gibraltar:
The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Cathedral Square was originally built as a church for the Anglican civilian population. The cathedral was built in 1825-1832, and is noted for its Moorish revival architecture. It was consecrated in 1838 in the presence of Queen Adelaide. With the formation of the Diocese of Gibraltar it became a cathedral in 1842. Today it is one of the three cathedrals of the Diocese in Europe – the other two are in Brussels and Valetta, Malta.
After World War II, new vestries were added along with a second chapel dedicated to Saint George in memory of those who died in the Mediterranean during World War II, and a small stone with a cross from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral was set into the wall.
An explosion in 1951 caused substantial damage to the cathedral, lifting the roof and smashing the stained glass.
In 1980, the Diocese of Gibraltar was extended and become the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe. The Diocese in Europe, as it is generally known, is geographically the largest diocese of the Church of England, covering one-sixth of the Earth’s landmass and stretching from Morocco, through Europe, Turkey and the former Soviet Union to the Russian Far East.
The Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, Bishop Rob Innes, a former Chancellor of the Pro-Cathedral of Holy Trinity Brussels, was consecrated bishop on 20 July 2014. The Archdeaconry of Gibraltar, Italy and Malta consists of Andorra, Gibraltar, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Portugal and Spain. Archdeacon David Waller, who was appointed in 2020, is based in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, and crosses the tiny border almost every day.
The Very Revd Ian Tarrant has been the Dean of Gibraltar since last October (13 October 2020). The cathedral ministry is a visible witness to Christian compassion and social conscience, working with migrant workers and refugees and using the cathedral space for crèche and counselling facilities.
Gibraltar is an open, tolerant society, with a large and visible Jewish community. Roman Catholics are in the majority (78 per cent), but the Anglican presence (7 per cent) remains significant.
12, (former) Holy Trinity Church, Bordesley, Birmingham:
Holy Trinity Church, Bordesley, is a Grade II listed former Church of England parish church, about 2 km south-east of Birmingham city centre. But the church is lonely and forlorn on the top of Old Camp Hill, isolated in a virtual traffic island between two roundabouts, Bordesley Circus and Camp Hill Circus, on the Middleway ring road.
Holy Trinity Church was consecrated and opened in 1823, and it was once at the centre of the most important Anglo-Catholic controversies in Birmingham that led to its Irish-born vicar, the Revd Richard Enraght, being jailed and dismissed.
Historically, Bordesley was part of the parish and union of Aston, on the edges of Birmingham. The hamlet was originally small, with only a few scattered dwelling-houses, such as Stratford Place, still standing at Camp Hill, and the Old Crown in Digbeth, which claims to be the oldest pub in Birmingham.
Holy Trinity Church is an example of a Commissioners’ church. It was built between 1820 and 1822 by the architect Francis Goodwin (1784-1835) in the decorated perpendicular gothic style. Goodwin’s later works include Lissadell House, Co Sligo, designed for Sir Robert Gore-Booth, and the gatehouse at Markree Castle, near Collooney, Co Sligo.
Goodwin is said to have modelled Holy Trinity Church, Bordesley, on King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. The church was consecrated on 23 January 1823 by the Bishop of Lichfield, James Cornwallis. A parish was assigned out of the parish of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Aston. At first, the living was in the gift of the Vicar of Aston, and was called a vicarage from 1872. The patronage was transferred to the Aston Trustees in 1884.
The church was built on a conventional rectangular plan with shallow canted apse, faced in Bath stone that is enlivened by spirelet pinnacled buttresses diving the windows and with octagonal pinnacled turrets holding the corners. A larger pair flank the effectively recessed full height entrance bay under the parapeted gable.
The soffit has a pattern of ribs over the large decorated west window, and the tracery is of cast iron. The porch proper is shallow and contained within the recess, a tripartite composition with an ogee arch to the central doorway with an ornate finial.
The east end above the apse has a cast iron tracery rose. It is said the coved ceiling still partially remains, but the interior decoration, which was of a high standard for its time, has been stripped and a floor inserted.
Holy Trinity Church played an important in the history of the High Church or Anglo-Catholic movement in the Church of England in the 19th century.
The Revd Samuel Crane, who was the first vicar in 1823-1841, was succeeded by the Revd Dr Joseph Oldknow, who is often regarded as Birmingham’s first Anglo-Catholic or ‘ritualist’ priest.
Oldknow was succeeded in 1874 by the Revd Richard William Enraght, whose trials and tribulations came to a head in the ‘Bordesley Wafer Case’ were first brought to my attention in 2016 by a friend at Lichfield Cathedral, Stephen Wright.
The Revd Richard William Enraght (1837-1898) was an Irish-born Anglican priest and one of the Anglo-Catholic priests who were prosecuted and jailed in the 19th century for their ritualism. He was born on 23 February 1837 at Moneymore, Co Derry, where his father, the Revd Matthew Enraght (1805-1882), was the Curate of Saint John’s, Desertlynn.
Matthew Enraght was born in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, where I was the priest-in-charge for five years (2017-2022). When Matthew later moved to England, Richard remained in Ireland and in 1860, at the age of 23, he graduated BA from Trinity College Dublin. He then moved to England, and in 1861 he was ordained deacon in Gloucester Cathedral by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.
Richard Enraght became Vicar of Holy Trinity, Bordesley, in 1874. He introduced weekday celebrations of the Eucharist. His practices at Holy Trinity included the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, candles on the altar, wearing a chasuble and alb, using wafers at the Eucharist, mixing water with the wine, making the sign of the Cross, bowing during the Gloria, and allowing the choir to sing the Agnus Dei.
The ‘Bordesley Wafer Case’ resulted in Enraght’s conviction on 9 August 1879 on 16 counts. He spent that Christmas in prison and was released after 49 days. Bishop Philpott revoked Enraght’s licence in March 1883 and appointed the Revd Alan H Watts to the parish, against the wishes of the congregation.
The church was closed in 1968. There were plans to demolish the church in the 1970s and proposals to convert the building into an arts centre, but these never came to fruition. Instead, the church was used for some years as a shelter for homeless people until about 1999.
There were plans to retore the building for church and community use as the Birmingham Trinity Centre, a conference and wedding venue and the meeting place of All Nations’ Church, Birmingham. The church was marketed for a residential conversion in 2014, but remains empty and forlorn.
