Most English churches have square towers, but there are small number which have round towers. They are to be found mainly in the East Anglian counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge, and they number around 185. Many of these round towers date from the Anglo-Saxon period, in the two centuries before the Norman invasion of [more...]
Before the introduction of fire insurance, if a church or chapel in England was burnt down or damaged by fire, then the rector and churchwardens were reliant on voluntary donations to repair the church. The same applied to churches that were in a poor structural condition and required rebuilding or extensive repairs. For a small [more...]
Nestled in the quite English countryside in the county of Herefordshire, near the market town of Ross-on-Wye, lies All Saint’s Church, the parish church of the village of Brockhampton. Meanwhile, on the other side of world, on the 21st and 22nd floor of a tower block in Osaka, Japan, can be seen its replica. Why? [more...]
The Latin word simultaneum can refer to the simultaneous occurrence of unrelated events, but when it came into use in the 16th century it had—and still has—a specific meaning, describing churches that were used by both Roman Catholics and the new Protestants. Many still are. “What?! That happened?” you might ask. It did, and very [more...]
The ownership of Catholic churches has received attention in recent years, but it is not new. Very early in Church history it was a question. As long as local rulers respected the Church, there was no dispute of ownership. But there were always problems of definition. The Church defined itself as a spiritual entity, but [more...]
Was the last king of England to be canonized Edward the Martyr or Edward the Confessor? No, it was Charles I, the king whom Cromwell and others had beheaded. The Anglican Church canonized Charles in 1660 after the Restoration, when his son was crowned as Charles II. He is known as Charles the Martyr or [more...]
Rosslyn Chapel already had 30,000 visitors a year before Dan Brown used it in his mystical adventure novel the Da Vinci Code in 2003. Numbers rose, and then escalated massively after the 2006 movie version showed Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou searching for secrets there. The church near Edinburgh, Scotland was overflowing with tourists in [more...]
Although churches with a large membership and attendance are nothing new, the term “megachurch” has come to refer to something more than numbers, usually referring to a type of evangelical Protestant church with not only a large membership but also with a worship style and outreach designed to appeal people who might not find traditional [more...]