ALL SAINTS’, NOTTING HILL.
All Saints, Notting-hill, once looked desolate and forsaken. It was like a church in a desert, and for a long time remained so; but now the houses and pleasant squares have grown up around it, and we can say it is situated in Colville-gardens. It is early English in style, built of stone in regular course, and covered with slate. At a distance it is cathedral-like in miniature, and it is not too much to say so, for upon a closer inspection the beautiful detail of all its parts quite satisfies the mind of the artist, and he leaves it without a feeling of disappointment. The roofs are peculiar in the rise of their ridges at the gables. This gives a somewhat broken look to them. The tower is very handsome, but unfinished. It requires the lantern to be completed, and marble shafts are required at the belfry windows. The church has three entrances—one in the tower to the west, by a handsome south porch, and by a north door. Slightly cruciform in plan, without nave aisles, transepts, chancel, and aisles, the nave arcade is peculiarly good, clustered marble shafts, and well-designed caps and bases, with full moulding to the arches. The clerestory is excellent in detail, and the ring-post and ribbed roof is a change from the usual style of church roof. The aisle corridors, too, are treated as a light arcade with clustered marble columns. The church is light, and the windows are filled with tinted and figured glass, also some good stained glass in the aisles. The pulpit and font are of alabaster; the pewing is light and of good design; the flooring is tiled. The organ in south transept is raised in a gallery of its own. The eastern wall of the Sacrarium is decorated with fresco, rather floridly painted—the angel saluting Mary and the birth of Christ. These frescoes have been universally recommended by art judges.
All Saints was consecrated in 1851, and represented an outlay of 20,000l. The tower alone cost 10,000l.—a very large sum, when we consider the incomplete character of the object on which it was spent. One chief thing about it worth notice is its bell; which tolls for church, and which has a deep and rich tone, reminding the ear, more than any other in the vicinity, of a cathedral “Tom.” The church is furnished with a very fine organ, by Messrs. Gray and Davidson, and cost 1,500l. It has forty stops, including the vox humana, and is, at present, under the management of Mr. Walker, a pupil of Dr. Steggall. There is sitting accommodation for between 1,100 and 1,200, 300 sittings being free, and the remainder letting at from one to two guineas per annum. The congregation is of a highly respectable class, and apparently matured and settled. The clergy consisting of the Rev. John Light, M.A., and three curates, the Revs. Messrs. Bathurst Coults, and Griffiths, are supported entirely from pew-rents, and a weekly offertory, which produces between 500l. and 600l. a-year, meets all other expenses. With regard to the service at All Saints it is moderately High Church; in every part of it there is an imitation of cathedral effects. There is a good choir, with surplices of course. Twelve of the boys have a free literary and musical education under one of the curates in what is termed the Choir School, the efficiency of the choir being thus continuously provided for. The singing is of a superior order—lively and spirited—and sufficiently wide of the Gregorian monotone. The Te Deum and Jubilate Deo are sung as anthems with good effect. The Prayers and Psalms are intoned, and the responses sung by the choir and congregation. And in excess of what is sometimes witnessed in High churches, the General Confession was intoned by the priest, and responded by the choir and people in song; and the Commandments were intoned by the Vicar himself. It may be observed that the assistant curate knelt with his back to the congregation, whilst the Vicar intoned the Commandments. At the name of Jesus in every place the minister and people bow. A more striking illustration of the inconvenience of this carried to excess could not be witnessed than in the singing of one of the hymns. It was Hymn 314 in the Appendix to “Hymns Ancient and Modern,” “When morning gilds the sky,” &c. There are eight verses of six short lines each, and in every third line the sacred name occurs—that is sixteen times in the course of the hymn. And the hymn being quickly sung, the head was kept in almost constant motion. The Nicene Creed was also sung. Then followed the sermon. The Vicar, ascending the pulpit and facing the congregation, whilst yet standing, pronounces, “To God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;” and at once gives out his text. It was a brief address of fifteen minutes, delivered without book or note. High Churchism pretty much sets on one side the old-established Gospel and Apostolic institution of “preaching the Word.” In the present instance, here was a minister of very considerable natural and acquired ability, which all who know him must allow places him far above mediocrity; there was a magnificent text of Scripture to discourse upon, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (3 Phil. xx. 1.) It would have been refreshing had there been time for this Scripture to have received a more adequate illustration from the lips of Mr. Light. But there are two full services every day, four on every Sunday and on festivals. Two administrations of the Holy Communion on Song Sunday and Festival; three sermons every Sunday, the brevity of which is justified at All Saints upon the principle, “That as God’s house is a house of prayer, and not merely a house of preaching, the service should be put before sermons.” But may not this notion be carried too far? What is the relation between preaching the Gospel and a proper devout performance of general Christian service, implied in true conversion and progress in spiritual life? We are not advocates for long sermons, but it appears to us to abbreviate them as some are doing is calculated to impair or defeat the higher spiritual objects of public worship.
THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, KENSINGTON.
The Church of St. John the Baptist is a temporary iron structure, and, like most other buildings of the sort, offers no point for architectural notice. It is, however, very good of its kind, and is, externally—as seen in the comparatively vacant part of the new Holland-road in which its stands—more picturesque than some others we have had to review. But the approaches to it are at present quite unformed, and when autumn and winter returns—unless something be done—the state of the road can scarcely be expected to help the congregation. We are glad, however, to hear that road improvement is in immediate contemplation. The interior is fitted with plain benches, and the temporary chancel neatly arranged, with a slight tendency to ornament. The church was at first rented from the builder, but has since been purchased. It has sittings for about 900 persons, of which one half from east to west are free. Of the other half a proportion only are at present let, at rentals varying from 1l. 1s. 0d. to 30s. per annum; so that a great majority of the congregation appear to avail themselves of the free seats. The church was opened in February, 1869, being planted in and intended to form a sub division in the ecclesiastical division of St. Barnabas, Kensington. The Rev. George Booker is incumbent and vicar designate. The rev. gentleman is at present without assistance in the services, except on Sunday evenings, when the Rev. Dr. Cosmo R. Gordon, minister of St. Mary’s, Park-street, Grosvenor-square, and head-master of the Notting-hill Collegiate School, is lecturer. In consequence of this arrangement, the Sunday evening lectures at this church are highly appreciated, Dr. Gordon being a talented and an esteemed preacher. The Rev. G. Booker, we believe, has set before him in the services—“To realise the spirit of the Prayer-book as it is, and not as any extreme party, High or Low, would wish it to be.” There is, however, nothing in the general service but what is reconcilable with High Churchism, although it does not appear to be intended. Unisonal chanting has been introduced within the last few weeks, on account of its greater volume of sound, the acoustic qualities of the church being very indifferent; but partly, also, from the difficulty felt in this as other churches in keeping together a complete double choir for antiphonal singing, where the services of the lay-clerks are voluntary. There is, however, a great preponderance of chanting in monotone, and this, whilst the minister intones his parts in the service, gives to the whole the impress of High Church service. There is a four-part surpliced choir of considerable efficiency, and one is apt to think it might appear to greater advantage in another style of singing. But the Rev. Mr. Booker is personally a minister of an earnest, evangelical type. His reading of the Scriptures is deliberate and most appropriate in tone and manner, and his sermon is by no means stultified in deference to the other parts of the service. This is a great merit. The sermon we had the privilege of hearing was founded on Luke xvi. 9: “And I say unto you make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” There was a very clear exposition of the parable of the unjust steward, and the right use as against the abuse of riches was cogently put, with a due amount of illustration and enforcement. We do not remember to have listened to a more instructive, practical, and useful treatment of this somewhat delicate subject.
The maintenance of the clergy, church expenses, interest on purchase money, &c., are objects to which the proceeds of the pew-rents and weekly offertory are devoted. The former source of income is at present limited and undeveloped. The offertory, up to this time, averages about 330l. per annum.
There is a very excellent middle-class school in connection with this church, conducted by Mr. Studdy, a B.A. of the London University. In this school the boys of the choir are amongst the pupils and have their education free.