Field of Dreams: if you build it, they will come!


Something about All Hallows
June 19, 2013, 8:30 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

Many of my sermons are headed, “preached at All Hallows, Easton,” so I thought you might like a little information about that Church.

All Hallows is situated in All Hallows Road, Easton, Bristol, an inner city area not far from the M32 motorway spur into the city centre from the M4. One boundary of the parish is the railway line from Bristol Temple Meads to Wales and the North, and in fact the line runs just behind the church itself. The parish is quite small, with a considerable Muslim population in and around it. There is also a synagogue and a Sikh temple, as well as mosques nearby. The local school has many Muslim children attending, so the importance of All Hallows as a “Christian flagship” cannot be overstressed.

AH02The church was designed by the noted Bristol architect George Oatley, whose most famous city landmark must be the University Wills Tower at the top of Park Street. The church has always stood in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, and as well as its diocesan loyalties has allegiance to the See of Ebbsfleet. It was a church much loved by the second Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Michael Houghton, who lived in Bristol until his untimely death in December 1999. His body lay in All Hallows church on the eve of his funeral at Bristol Cathedral.

As you face eastwards, from behind the font, the church is dominated by the great hanging rood, the crucifix flanked by the Blessed Virgin and St John. The High Altar itself has an image of the risen Christ above it. There are two side aisles, north and south, with the altar of our Lady of Walsingham at the western end of the north aisle.

AH03The pulpit is beautifully carved with figures of our Lord and missionary saints such as Birinus, Aldhelm and Boniface, all associated with the West Country. I will give a further description on another occasion.

AH06

 


3 Comments so far
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A splendid church, and a bit of a hidden treasure, too! It really does need a website. The Mass times are not publicised anywhere online that I know of. Something modest just with a few pictures of the church, clergy and congregation would be very effective.

Comment by Kyle Mulholland

I’m told a website is being planned. Meanwhile, I am putting up a bit of information myself. Mass (as you know) is at 10 on Sundays, 7.15pm on Tuesdays, 10.30am on Wednesdays.

Comment by Fr Paul Spilsbury SSC

On another note Father there is a nice collection of old-fashioned Introits, Graduals, Offertory and Communion sentences in the old English Hymnal, which have the added benefit (unlike the Missal propers) of having something like official Church of England approval.

You might also like this, which calls itself the Anglican Missal, and contains some very nice liturgical stuff.
http://archive.org/details/anglicanmissal00churuoft

Comment by Kyle Mulholland




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