Jesmond Parish Church

Clayton Memorial Church, Jesmond
Denomination Church of England
Churchmanship Conservative Evangelical
Website www.church.org.uk
Administration
Parish Jesmond, Clayton Memorial
Deanery Newcastle Central
Archdeaconry Northumberland
Diocese Newcastle
Province York
Clergy
Vicar(s) David Holloway
Minister(s) Jonathan Pryke
Assistant Jonathan Redfearn, Rev Ian Garrett
Laity
Director of music Dave Dowling

Jesmond Parish Church is a parish church in the Church of England situated in Brandling Village in the Jesmond suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The church's official name is the Clayton Memorial Church and is unusual among Anglican parish churches in not being named after either a saint who appears in the church's calendar or a person of the Trinity. This reflects the church's conservative Evangelical roots.

History

The church had a slightly unusual beginning. 1856 saw the death of the Revd Richard Clayton, Master of St Thomas' Church in Haymarket and a local Evangelical luminary. In his place the church authorities wished to appoint a high church successor who was out of sympathy with Clayton's Reformed Evangelical principles. A large number of the congregation of St Thomas's were deeply unhappy. A committee was formed with the intention of planting a new church nearby, which "will form a central point for the maintenance and promulgation of sound scriptural and evangelical truth in a large and populous town." At the time, much of the land around the site was open fields; the building was designed by the architect John Dobson and consecrated in 1861.[1]

List of vicars

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Organ

The church houses a pipe organ by the notable builder James Jepson Binns of Leeds which dates from 1913. It contains pipework from an organ by T. C. Lewis of 1895. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.[2]

List of organists

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List of assistant organists

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Present

Jesmond Parish Church is a conservative evangelical Anglican church of approximately 1,100 people. Currently the leadership team of the church includes David Holloway (vicar since 1973), Jonathan Pryke, Jonathan Redfearn, Ian Garrett and Alan Munden. The church is noted for its preaching, which aims to be expository and evangelistic.

Liturgically the church is conservative, adopting the north side position at services of Holy Communion. ASB Rite A (Prayer Book Pattern) is used. Services of Morning and Evening Prayer are based on the Series 3 forms. Hymns are from Hymns for Today's Church, published by the evangelical Anglican "Jubilate" group.

The church has a close relationship with the Christian Institute whose national headquarters are also in Newcastle. David Holloway is a prominent member of the institute. While seeking to support gay and lesbian Christians who believe that same-sex activity is sinful, both organisations take a strong stance against homosexual practice, in more recent times in relation to the legislation on civil partnerships, which has led to the church's services being picketed on a number of occasions by gay rights activists. In October 1999 the church was vandalised with graffiti opposing the church's stance on human sexuality.[6]

Jesmond Parish Church is a member of Reform, a network of evangelical churches within the Church of England which includes some of the largest Anglican churches in UK. Other churches with similar theology include:

Clayton Media

In 2007, the Jesmond Trust (set up to manage the property and finances of the church) started a new media production unit known as Clayton Media. The aim was to fill a perceived gap in the UK media by producing scriptural and evangelical content to broadcast quality. In 2008 this aim was initially realised through the introduction of the Clayton.tv website. Evening services from the church are now filmed to broadcast quality and later edited and put on the website which acts as an Internet TV channel. Other content includes Christian talk shows and teaching from Sydney, Australia.

In the coming years, Clayton Media intends to take advantage of the growth of Internet TV technologies to enable broadcasting to television sets via the Internet and set-top boxes, as opposed to being merely PC-based for the time being.

References

  1. ↑ "History - About". JPC. Retrieved 2016-04-15.
  2. ↑ National Pipe Organ Register website.
  3. ↑ Northern history, Volumes 16-18, University of Leeds. School of History, 1980
  4. ↑ Who's who in Music. Fourth edition. 1962. p.205
  5. ↑ Who's who in Music. Shaw Publishing. 1937. p.376
  6. ↑ The Guardian.

Further reading

A Light in a Dark Place by the Revd Dr Alan Munden (Clayton Publications, 2006; 286 pp; ISBN 0-9507592-1-X) is a history of the church.

Coordinates: 54°58′56.3″N 1°36′23.5″W / 54.982306°N 1.606528°W / 54.982306; -1.606528

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