Digging in the archives, I uncovered this rather lively history. It is from the 1949 Pilot Magazine, and is a look at the history of the Church by G.R. Balleine.
A Short History of St Paul's Church
by G.R. Balleine
St. Paul's had a troubled and tempestuous birth. By the
beginning of the nineteenth century- the population of St.Helier had grown to
over 10,000, while the Town Church could only scat about 800l. A second church was
clearly needed.
But in those days the creation of a new parish was beset by
legal difficulties. In England this deadlock had been eased by building Proprietary
Chapels, akin to those attached to Colleges and Hospitals; these had no parish,
and remained the property of their founders. One such already existed in Jersey
at St. Aubin's. So in 1811 a group of townsfolk petitioned the King in Council for
leave “to build a Private Chapel for the performance of Divine Worship,"
and the Council granted their request, and gave to them and their successors “the
perpetual right of appointing the Minister to officiate therein."
This sounded very laudable: but more lay behind the request
than appeared on the surface. Political feeling at this time was
extraordinarily bitter. In the Town the Rose (or Radical) Party was dominant, and
the four organizers of the petition, .Jurats Bailhache and Nicolle, Philip
Winter the Constable, and Aaron de Ste. Croix, one of the Churchwardens, were
Rose leaders.
Dean Dupré, the Rector, in his younger days had been more
Radical than any of them ; but the French Revolution had frightened him, and he
had swung to the other extreme, and become
a vehement champion of the Laurel (or Conservative)
Faction. And he could not keep his politics out of the pulpit. The Rose men
resented the Dean’s denunciation of their Party in his sermons, and this made them
eager to build a church in which they could worship unannoyed.
But no clergyman welcomes the secession of half his
congregation, and Dupré opposed the registration of the Order in the Royal
Court. demanding to be heard before the Privy Council before it was enrolled.
This held matters up for four years : but the Founders went
on with their plans. They bought a garden in New Street. The foundation stone
of the Chapel was laid in 1815 and by 1817 it was ready for use, a solid building
of Mont Mado granite, seating 1,400, with high pews over which the heads of the
congregation were just visible, three galleries and a three-decker pulpit concealing
the Lord's Table.
The entire cost, £6,000, was borne by the twenty-four
Founders. The Court finally registered the Order in October, 1817, and on 14th
December, the Opening Services were conducted in French by the Rector of St.
Ouen's.
The old account-hook still shows the entry:
“Paid to Jas Deal for his carriage to bring the Rev. Mons. Ricard
from St. Ouen's, 37 -."
But the Dean inhibited all local clergy from officiating in
the building, and it had to be closed.
Two of the founders then went to England. An entry in the
Ledger runs :-" Expenses of Messrs. De La Taste and De Ste. Croix on their
journey to London from 27th January to 14th
February, to find a Minister, £37." But their efforts were in vain. All English
clergymen, whom they approached, sheered off, when they heard of the Dean's
attitude.
Meanwhile their colleagues were trying to come to terms with
Dupré, offering him £35 a year to cover any possible loss of fees. But he remained
adamant. Their thoughts then turned toward France. The Ledger records a payment
of £34 to “Clement Nicolle and others for their voyage to Paris for a Minister."
This time they were successful. They found a young
Frenchman, Pardus Emilius Frossard, who had just been ordained as Minister of
the French Eglise Reforme -. His father was a D.C.L. of Oxford, and the son was
-willing to accept Anglican orders. He was accepted by the Bishop of Winchester;
but again the Dean intervened, and his ordination was postponed.
The Founders then fell back on a clause in the Act of
Uniformity, which, while requiring all Clergy to be episcopally ordained, specifically
exempted Ministers of the Foreign Reformed Churches. Local lawyers advised that
Frossard's Huguenot ordination was sufficient. There were precedents for this.
Louis Michel, who had ministered at St Aubin's for eleven
years, had been only in Huguenot Orders, and it was urged : ' Many persons now
living will recollect a late Rector of St. Clement's taking possession of that
living, without ordination, who also sat in the States till the day of his
death.’
Frossard began his Ministry in Nov ember 1818 and drew
crowded congregations (The Services were, of course, in French).
Confronted by this situation, Dupré hesitated for eleven
months, and then summoned Frossard before the Ecclesiastical Court to show his
licence from the Bishop. Frossard refused to appear; declaring that in that
Court the Dean would be both Prosecutor and Judge and appealed to the Royal
Court for protection. The Founders also pleaded that St. Paul's as a Private
Chapel was outside the Dean's jurisdiction.
The Dean retaliated by excommunicating Frossard.
After a great deal of legal sparring, the Court eventually
referred the matter to the Privy Council, and meanwhile prohibited the Dean
from interfering with St. Paul's till the Council's decision was known. This
enabled Frossard to continue his ministry for another eighteen months. But then
the Council adjudged that –“the Citation issued by the Dean of Jersey is no
infringement of the Order in Council."
This ended the struggle. Frossard preached his farewell
sermon in May, 1821, and returned to France, where he became Pastor of the Eglise
Reformee at Caen.
The Bishop then informed the Founders that he would license
any suitable clergyman of the Church of England, whom they would nominate; and
they were fortunate in their choice. Thomas Hornsby, Rector of Waddesdon,
Bucks, and Chaplain to the Duke of Dorset, happened to be in Jersey, and he accepted
the post. He took the Services in English, and, as these were the only English
Services in the island, he attracted most of the English residents.
Successive Governors were regular worshippers at St. Paul's,
and on occasions when the whole island contributed to some common cause, the St.
Paul's collections always headed the list. For the Irish Famine, for example,
St. Paul's gave £64. Hornsby worked here for more than ten years, and was succeeded
by Archdeacon Mant who had just resigned his work in North Ireland.
For fifty years Minister succeeded Minister, and the church
continued to prosper. Other churches were built in the Town, most of which felt
the influence more or less of the Oxford Movement, but St. Paul's remained staunch
to the older Evangelical views. It was the last church in the island to drop
the use of the black gown in the pulpit.
Its congregation proved generous supporters of the Church Missionary
Society, the Bible Society, the Zenana Missionary Society, the South American
Missionary Society, and other similar institutions.
Nor slid they neglect the needs of their own neighbourhood,
for the St. Paul's Day Schools at the time they were built were regarded as
models of educational efficiency.
In 1839 St. Paul's people had a severe shock. The foundations of the church began to give way. The ground on which it was built had once been a marsh, and architects reported that repair was impossible; the building was unsafe. and would have to be rebuilt. This was a big task for one congregation, and the faint-hearted began to talk of a tabernacle of corrugated iron. But subscriptions flowed in, and hopes revived.
The congregation was held together by Services in the Oddfellows'
Hall; and on Michaelmas Day, 1891. the present well-proportioned and attractive
church was opened.
Two obstacles, however, blocked the way to its consecration;
first the fact that it owed a debt to the builders. and secondly the fact that
the Bishop disliked the system by which the whole body of seatholders chose by
vote the incumbent. By 1912 these difficulties has been removed. The debt was paid
off; and the seat-holders resigned their right to appoint to a body of
Trustees. And the church was consecrated by Bishop Talbot on May 13th.
The new church has been singularly fortunate in its incumbents.
It would be invidious to mention names: but people still speak of the crowds
that filled it to overflowing during the seven years' ministry of that eloquent
Welshman, Bulstrode Price. St. Paul's has contributed many souls to the company
of the Church Triumphant. May it long continue to do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment