McKnight spent $600,000 to restore the St. James during three months in 1958. The interior was extensively modified, while the exterior remained relatively intact. Under designer Frederick Fox, the exterior was painted green and gold, while the interior was decorated in gold and charcoal gray. The curtains, carpets, and seats were replaced; the adjacent alley was converted to a smoking area; and new electronic systems were installed. The first show at the renovated theater was Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song, which opened in December 1958 and ran for 600 performances. The St. James next hosted a transfer of the off-Broadway hit Once Upon a Mattress with Carol Burnett in 1960. This was followed the same year by Jean Anouilh's play Becket, with Laurence Olivier and Anthony Quinn, and the Betty Comden/Adolph Green/Jule Styne musical Do Re Mi, with Nancy Walker and Phil Silvers. Another Comden/Green/Styne musical arrived in 1961: Subways Are for Sleeping, featuring Orson Bean, Sydney Chaplin, Carol Lawrence, and Phyllis Newman.
Further modifications to the St. James were made in 1962. The same year, the theater hosted the musical Mr. President, which was Irving Berlin's last Broadway show and was not popularly received. The next production at the St. James was John Osborne's Luther, which opened in 1963 and featured Albert Finney. The Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart musical Hello, Dolly! opened at the St. James in January 1964, originally featuring Carol Channing and David Burns. With 2,844 performances through 1970, Hello, Dolly! was the longest-running Broadway musical when it closed. This was followed in 1971 by Galt MacDermot and John Guare's version of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona, featuring Raul Julia, Clifton Davis, and Jonelle Allen for 613 performances.
For much of the mid-1970s, the St. James hosted short-lived revivals. For instance, a 1973 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, with Alan Feinstein and Lois Nettleton, ended after only 53 performances. An even shorter show was the 1974 revival of the musical Good News, with Alice Faye and Gene Nelson, which ran 16 times. This was followed in 1975 by the revival of The Misanthrope with Alec McCowen and Diana Rigg, which had 94 performances, as well as the musical revue A Musical Jubilee, which had 92 performances. In 1976, McKnight transferred the St. James and Jujamcyn's other venues to his daughter Virginia and her husband James H. Binger. The same year, the theater hosted a revival of My Fair Lady, which relocated at the end of 1976 to make way for George Abbott's musical Music Is. The next hit was Comden and Green's musical On the Twentieth Century, which opened in 1978 and had over 450 performances. Four short runs followed in 1979 and 1980: Carmelina, Broadway Opry '79, The 1940's Radio Hour, and Filumena.


The musical Barnum premiered in 1980, starring Jim Dale with music by Michael Stewart, Cy Coleman, and Mark Bramble; it had 854 performances over the next two years. The next show was the 1982 revue Rock 'N Roll! The First 5,000 Years, which flopped after a week. Following this was another long run, the musical My One and Only, which opened in 1983 and ran for 767 performances. The stage floor and traps were replaced after My One and Only's run ended. In July 1985, Jujamcyn announced a $1.5 million renovation for the theater. The changes, executed by Total Concept, included a new marquee, seats, draperies, and carpets, as well as a repainted auditorium and new electrical wiring. Due to the relatively small budget and the project's eighteen-week schedule, the lighting was not changed; additionally, some of the original details could not be restored. The theater reopened in December 1985 with the revue Jerry's Girls, which lasted four months. Afterward, the long-running musical 42nd Street transferred from the Majestic in 1987, extending its run for two years. The St. James's last shows of the decade were Bill Irwin's play Largely New York and a revival of the musical Gypsy with Tyne Daly in 1989. The latter ran for more than a year.
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) had started to consider protecting the St. James as a landmark in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years. The LPC designated the St. James's facade and interior as a landmark on December 15, 1987. This was part of the commission's wide-ranging effort in 1987 to grant landmark status to Broadway theaters. The New York City Board of Estimate ratified the designations in March 1988. Jujamcyn, the Nederlanders, and the Shuberts collectively sued the LPC in June 1988 to overturn the landmark designations of 22 theaters, including the St. James, on the merit that the designations severely limited the extent to which the theaters could be modified. The lawsuit was escalated to the New York Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States, but these designations were ultimately upheld in 1992.
The musical The Secret Garden, starring Daisy Eagan and Mandy Patinkin, opened in 1991 and ran for 706 performances over two years. This was followed in 1993 by The Who's Tommy, which also ran for two years, accumulating 900 performances. The next production was supposed to be the musical Busker Alley in 1995, for which LeRoy Neiman painted a 40-foot-tall (12 m) mural on the theater's facade. The musical's Broadway run was canceled after its star Tommy Tune broke his foot, and the mural was painted over. The Stephen Sondheim musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was revived in 1996 and ultimately ran for 715 performances. This was followed by a limited engagement by singer Patti LaBelle in January 1998, as well as a 98-performance run of the musical High Society the same year. The St. James underwent a $3 million, eight-month renovation, conducted by EverGreene Architectural Arts. When the theater reopened in 1999, it hosted a short run of the musical The Civil War and a year-long run of the dance revue Swing!.


Swing! closed in January 2001 and was replaced by Mel Brooks's musical The Producers, which broke a ticket-sale record when it opened in April 2001. Due to high demand, The Producers' producers started reserving premium seat tickets at the theatre in a will call system to prevent scalping, the first time any Broadway show had done this. Prior to the implementation of this policy, brokers would buy tickets for $100 and resell them for as much as $742.50; though such markups were illegal in New York state, the tickets were sold on websites that were based in other states. After Binger died in 2004, Rocco Landesman bought the St. James and Jujamcyn's four other theaters in 2005, along with the air rights above them. Jordan Roth joined Jujamcyn as a resident producer the same year. The Producers ultimately lasted until 2007, with 2,502 performances. It was followed the same year by a limited run of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, which opened one day before the start of the 2007 Broadway stagehand strike; a New York Supreme Court judge ruled that forced to keep operating during the strike. The St. James then hosted a revival of Gypsy in 2008, featuring Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti, and Boyd Gaines.
In 2009, Roth acquired a 50 percent stake in Jujamcyn and assumed full operation of the firm when Landesman joined the National Endowments of the Arts. The same year, the St. James staged the Goodman Theatre's revival of Desire Under the Elms and the City Center Encores production of Finian's Rainbow. In the early 2010s, the St. James hosted musicals along with limited-engagement concerts. These included American Idiot in 2010; Hair and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever in 2011; Leap of Faith and Bring It On: The Musical in 2012; Barry Manilow's concert and Let It Be in 2013; and Bullets Over Broadway and Side Show in 2014. Part of the stage-left portion of the theater was demolished to accommodate the set for Bullets Over Broadway. Afterward, Something Rotten! opened in 2015 and ran for a year and a half. A revival of the play Present Laughter was then hosted in 2017.
After Second Stage Theater bought the adjacent Hayes Theater in 2016, Roth approached Second Stage about the possibility of simultaneously renovating both theaters. Second Stage sold the alley between the theaters to Jujamcyn, which extended the St. James's stage 10 feet (3.0 m) eastward into the alley. The stage expansion was completed for the Disney musical Frozen, which opened in March 2018. Frozen achieved the box office record for the St. James Theatre, grossing $2,624,495 over eight performances for the week ending December 30, 2018. On March 12, 2020, the theater was temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Frozen was canceled as a result.  The St. James was the first Broadway house to reopen after the pandemic-related closure, with a limited run of Bruce Springsteen's Springsteen on Broadway shows opening on June 26, 2021. As part of a settlement with the United States Department of Justice in 2021, Jujamcyn agreed to improve disabled access at its five Broadway theaters, including the St. James. David Byrne's American Utopia opened later the same year and ran until early 2022. This was followed in July 2022 by a limited run of the musical Into the Woods, which was extended through October of that year.


WikiWeb_St. James United Church (Montreal)_1

When it was built in June 1889, it was the largest Methodist church in Canada, with 2,000 seats; it was nicknamed the "Cathedral Church of Methodism." It now belongs to the United Church of Canada, into which the Canadian Methodists merged in 1925. Its congregation founded the first YMCA in North America on November 25, 1851 (before the present church building was built) and led an active campaign for women's suffrage early in the 20th century.
A World War I memorial window (1924) by Charles William Kelsey depicting a trench scene at St. James United Church (Montreal) was dedicated to 32 members who were killed overseas and 267 others who served in the Great War. The side lights represent the cardinal virtues, Justice, Prudence, Temperance and Fortitude.
In 1927, to cover upkeep costs, the church permitted a commercial building to be built in front of its Sainte Catherine Street façade. The building, adjoining the church's structure, concealed the church for over 78 years, the church itself being announced by a large neon sign.
In 2005, as part of an $8-million restoration effort sponsored by the city of Montreal and the Quebec government, a portion of the commercial buildings were demolished, once again revealing the facade of the church as well as a new public square designed by Quebec architect Claude Cormier. Access has also been restored to the rear lawn from Sainte Catherine Street.


WikiWeb_St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church (Indianapolis, Indiana)_5

The church is constructed of red brick laid in a modified Flemish bond and white limestone corner buttresses over a limestone foundation. It has an arched main entrance, a square cupola, and twin spires. The basic cruciform plan includes a shallow transept, nave, and a half-octagon apse. The sanctuary has a seating capacity of 3,000. Saint Johns was the largest church in Indiana when the cornerstone was laid in 1867. The church measures 75 feet (23 m) wide, 202.5 feet (61.7 m) long, and 53 feet (16 m) tall. Its twin spires are 194 feet (59 m) tall.
The main facade facing Capitol Avenue is divided into three sections with three portals faced in stone. The three-story gabled center section contains the main entrance with large wooden doors. Limestone Corinthian order columns support a compound Gothic arch. The stone tympanum above the main portal includes Joseph Quarmby's life-size representation of John the Evangelist pondering the scriptures, and the church's construction dates (1867 and 1871) are inscribed in stone over the main entrance. A half-circle stone cap bears the inscription "D.O.M. " (Deo optimo maximo), meaning "To God, the Best and Greatest." A gabled parapet with a blind trefoil and a cross surmounts the arch. A rose window is installed in the center at the second-story level. The facade's two tower sections, topped with identical copper spires on the left and right, include an additional entrance with wooden doors. Each tower has four upper levels separated by belted courses and include openings at each level.


In the 1820s, the town of St. Marks, Florida was considered an important port of entry. The town served as a port for the prosperous planting region of Middle Florida and some counties of South Georgia. Growers hauled their agricultural products down to the port town in wagons by way of an early road which connected the then territorial capital of Tallahassee to the town of St. Marks. Later, this road would be widened and improved upon by the Tallahassee Railroad Company and would become the state's first railroad.
Once the agricultural products reached the new port town, they were loaded aboard boats for shipment to New Orleans and/or St. Augustine. There were, however, problems in navigating both the Apalachee Bay and the St. Marks River. In many places both bay and river were shallow, and it was not too uncommon for boats to run aground and/or get mired in the muddy shallows.


WikiWeb_St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church_6

Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava was awarded the task of designing the new St. Nicholas; he has referred to the church as a “human-scaled presence in an ensemble of giants.” The building will take the form of a circular domed church flanked by four towers, referencing the great Byzantine churches of Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Savior in Chora, both in Istanbul. According to Calatrava, who consulted Archbishop Demetrios with regard to the liturgical and iconographical requirements of the interior, the church would be built of steel and concrete, but the exterior would be clad in stone using a double-wall construction method. The outer wall will feature thin slabs of Pentelic marble that will be illuminated by LED lights on a nightly basis. While the layout of the interior will follow a traditional Greek Orthodox pattern, St. Nicholas will function as an open, pluralistic communal gathering space accessible to the public on a regular basis, in addition to its role as a place of worship.
The ground blessing ceremony and symbolic laying of the cornerstone took place on October 18, 2014, attended by government and church leaders, with construction expected to be completed within two years. In September 2015 a live webcam showing the church's construction was made available.
In 2015, AHEPA chapters from across the country launched fundraising efforts hoping to raise at least $500,000 over the following two years toward the estimated $38 million project, combining contributions with private gifts and donations from the 525 parishes within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. In the spring of 2016, it was announced that proceeds totaling $100,000 from the liquidation of the assets of St. Nicholas Church in Appleton, Wisconsin would be donated to the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Church and Shrine. The parish would be denoted as a benefactor, and a video history of their church would be present at the new St. Nicholas National Shrine. In September 2016, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation donated 5 million dollars for the rebuilding of Saint Nicholas at the WTC.
On November 29, 2016, the church structure was ceremoniously topped out with a temporary cross, to be replaced with a permanent cross upon completion of the church dome.
On August 21, 2017, the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church signed a formal lease and purchase agreement with the Port Authority for what is to be known as The Saint Nicholas National Shrine at the World Trade Center. The final deal was signed by Rick Cotton, the Port's new executive director, just days after he took on the role. The 198-year lease runs until July 31, 2215, and has an additional 99-year extension, as well as an option to buy the land from the Port Authority at any time during the term of the lease for a nominal [i.e., $1] purchase price.


WikiWeb_St. Nicholas Historic District_0

The St. Nicholas Historic District, known colloquially as "Striver's Row", is a historic district located on both sides of West 138th and West 139th Streets between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.  It is both a national and a New York City district, and consists of row houses and associated buildings designed by three architectural firms and built in 1891–93 by developer David H. King Jr.  These are collectively recognized as gems of New York City architecture, and "an outstanding example of late 19th-century urban design":
There are three sets of buildings:
the red brick and brownstone buildings on the south (even-numbered) side of West 138th Street and at 2350–2354 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard were designed by James Brown Lord in the Georgian Revival style;
the yellow brick and white limestone with terra cotta trim buildings on the north (odd-numbered) side of 138th and on the south (even-numbered) side of 139th Street and at 2360–2378 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard were designed in the Colonial Revival style by Bruce Price and Clarence S. Luce;
the dark brick, brownstone and terra cotta buildings on the north (odd-numbered) side of 139th Street and at 2380 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard were designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival style by Stanford White of the firm McKim, Mead & White.
The district was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The district's name reflects the nearby St. Nicholas Park.


WikiWeb_St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church (Juneau, Alaska)_1

Russians did not settle in the Juneau area while this territory was a Russian colony (1784–1867). Nor did the Russian Orthodox Church send missionaries to Juneau when the mining settlement started in 1881. Instead, the Orthodox Church became strongly established here through the efforts of the local Tlingit leaders. In 1890, the Taku leader Anathahash traveled to Sitka to be baptized into the Orthodox faith. More traditional Tlingit gravitated toward the Orthodox Church among Christian offerings, as it had used local languages in worship since about 1800 in Kodiak and 1824 in the Aleutian Islands. The Holy Scriptures and much of the Divine Liturgy (as the Orthodox call the Mass, or Lord's Supper) had been translated into Tlingit by St. Innocent (Veniaminov) during his years as a priest in Sitka (1834–40) and later as Bishop of Alaska (1842–1850).
Anathahash returned from Sitka in 1890 with the Rev. Vladimir Donskoy, the first Russian Orthodox priest to conduct services in the area. During Fr. Vladimir's stay, he instructed and baptized many of the local Tlingit people. That year Alexei Yaakwaan, son of a Tlingit leader, converted to the Orthodox Church and encouraged his father, Yees Gaanaalx, leader of the L'eeneidí (Dog Salmon) people of Auke Bay, to be baptized. Sitka Chief Khlantych told the church that Yees Gaanaalx wanted to convert to Orthodoxy and that Tlingit would follow his example.
On July 26, 1892 Bishop Nicholas (Ziorov) of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska (1891–1898), visited Juneau from San Francisco, where the seat of the church in America had been located since 1872. The bishop was met by the Tlingit leaders wanting to convert. According to oral tradition, he was told that the Tlingit leaders had each been having a common, recurring dream.  In their dream, a short, white-bearded, elderly man encouraged them to become Christian. When these leaders saw an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, they "recognized" him as being the man in their dreams. Three days later, the Priest-monk Mitrofan baptized both Yees Gaanaalx and his wife, giving them the Christian names of Dimitri and Elizabeth. Following their example, some 700 of approximately 1500 Tlingit in the area also converted to the Orthodox church.
With such a large Native congregation to be served, the Orthodox Missionary Society in Russia sent architectural drawings, interior church furnishings – such as candlestands, a chalice set, censers, banners, a full iconostasis (the icon screen), and festal icons – and two hundred silver rubles to support construction of a church for them. The six large panels on the iconostasis are the original icons received from Russia and hold a unique position as the only known iconostasis where the deacon's doors depict Sts. Cyril and Methodius rather than either the Archangels Michael and Gabriel or the Deacons Stephen & Lawrence.  The newly baptized Tlingit and Serbian gold miners, who were already Orthodox, helped build the traditional structure. It is a high-quality example of the "Russian Colonial" style of architecture. In June 1894, Bishop Nicholas returned to Juneau and consecrated the new church in honor of St. Nicholas.
On June 5, 2016 Bishop David (Mahaffey) at Saint Nicholas Church with Alaska Governor Bill Walker and First Lady Donna Walker opened of a new monument erected in memory of the many Aleuts who lost their lives in internment camps during World War II.


St.Paraskeva (or Paraskevy Piatnyci) church belongs to the oldest religious buildings of the city. Its construction dates back to the 13th-14th centuries. Was substantially rebuilt after a fire in 1623. Due to the persecution of the Orthodox Church in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth funds for reconstruction was provided by Moldavian Voevod Vasile Lupu, which was completed in 1644. Building blocks were hewn sandstone.
The single-nave church has a defensive character – its walls are thick and the windows small, also further demonstrated by the loopholes in the upper storeys of the tower. Enclosed is an octagonal apse. The wall bears the coat of arms of Moldova of the hospodar – the head of an aurochs with the sun, moon and star.  In 1885, a fundamental overhaul of the entire building was made.
The high, square tower is linked organically with the competent body of the temple. In 1908, it was covered with a new, domed helmet, designed by architect Michal Łużecki and placed at the current helmet tent, then the smaller towers at the corners were added. A decorative element of the tower is an attic with a blind arcade of arches of Romanesque and Renaissance pilasters. In 1987–1990, a new bell tower was built in the courtyard in front of the façade, which was harmonized with architecture of the old church.


St. Paraskevi Church in Kwiatoń - a Gothic, wooden church located in the village of Kwiatoń from the nineteenth-century, which together with different tserkvas is designated as part of the UNESCO Wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine.


St. Paraskevi Church in Radruż - a Gothic, wooden church located in the village of Radruż from the sixteenth-century, which together with different tserkvas is designated as part of the UNESCO Wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine.
The tserkva belongs to the oldest and best kept wooden sacramental architecture tserkvas in Poland. Part of the prestigious World Monuments Fund (WMF) list of buildings worthy of preservation and financial sponsorship.
The tserkva is located on an oval hill, by the Radrużka stream, and together with the bell tower is surrounded by a wall (existent from 1825), with a fortification structure. The tserkva's structure is constructed out of a fir and oak framework. The tserkva was most likely funded by poseł to Sejm, and starosta Jan Płaza (died 1599). While being used for sacramental services, the tserkva was also used as a fortress against the invasions by the Tatars.


WikiWeb_St. Patrick Catholic Church (Portland, Oregon)_1

The church was originally designed by Otto Kleemann in the Second Renaissance Revival style; it is the only remaining Kleemann church in Portland. The original plans called for a brick structure, but with the foundation already laid, the material was changed to Clackamas County basalt.
The church is cruciform, with an Italianate hipped dome and spire rising 35 feet above the ridge of the roof. The bays are separated by Ionic pilasters extending from the basement to the entablature. The stained glass windows represent some of the earliest work of the Povey Brothers Studio.
The interior of the church was not completed until 1914, when the plaster and lath were decorated with murals in honor of the church's silver jubilee. Swiss artist Phillip Staehli was commissioned to reproduce pictures from Trinity College, Dublin; he painted a fresco of the Transfiguration of Jesus above the tabernacle and altar, flanked by lifesize paintings of Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget. Along the nave are frescoes of the principal saints of Ireland, most of which survive: Columba, Kieran, Fridolin, Canice, Colman, Gall, Virgilius, Columbkille, Brendan, Jarith, Lawrence O'Toole, Malachy, and Ailbe.


The Peterskirche, sometimes called Alte Peterskirche (Old St. Peter) to distinguish it from the later building at a different location) was built close to one of the four city gates and adjacent to the wall. The quarter around it was called Petersviertel (St. Peter's quarter). The church was dedicated on 29 March 1507. After the Reformation, the church was abandoned in 1539. The building served as storage and during the Thirty Years' War as barracks. In 1704, the minister of St. Thomas's church suggested that the building should be used again for religious purposes. It was rebuilt, including a sacristy and two storeys. The first service was held on 29 May 1712. A new altar and organ were installed from 1797 to 1799. A bell tower was added in 1874.
When the congregation outgrew the old church, minister Gustav Adolf Fricke and the church council decided in 1876 to build a new church. A property at the Schlettenplatz, south of the old city, was exchanged for the property of the old church. Eighty architects from all over Germany responded to a competition in 1877. The designs by August Hartel and Constantin Lipsius were chosen. Construction began in March 1882; the Grundsteinlegung (laying the foundation stone) was celebrated on 17 September that year. It was dedicated on 27 December 1885. The interior painting and stained glass windows were completed in 1886.
The church was damaged during the bombing of Leipzig in World War II; its roof was largely destroyed and was left unrepaired for several years. Restoration was performed during the 1970s and again in the 1990s and 2000s.


St. Peter is one of the four main churches of the old town of Zürich, Switzerland, besides Grossmünster, Fraumünster, and Predigerkirche.


The remarkable triptych image of the city was begun by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1552/53, shortly before his death, and completed in 1555 by his son Lucas Cranach the Younger. It is regarded as a major work of art of the 16th century in Saxony and Thuringia.


The façade of the Church of St. Publius consists of a neoclassical portico topped by a triangular pediment, flanked by a bell tower on either side. A statue of Christ the King stands on the top of the façade. The church has a cruciform plan with a dome and a richly decorated interior.
The altarpiece showing the martyrdom of Publius dates back to 1773, and it is the work of Antoine de Favray and his pupil Filippo Vincenzo Pace. The ceiling is decorated by paintings depicting Saint Paul's shipwreck and his stay in Malta. Several other paintings are also found in the church, including works by Giuseppe Calì, Emvin Cremona and many other artists.
The titular statue of St. Publius was completed in 1811 by the sculptor Vincenzo Dimech.


WikiWeb_St. Simeon of the Wonderful Mountain Church_0

The St. Simeon of the Wonderful Mountain Church (Russisch-Orthodoxe Kirche des Heiligen Simeon vom wunderbaren Berge) is a Russian Orthodox church in the German city of Dresden. It was designed by Harald Julius von Bosse and Karl Weißbach and built from 1872 to 1874. It is dedicated to Simeon Stylites the Younger.
During the aerial bombing attack on the city in February 1945,
the church was the only building within a wide area which remained relatively intact.


WikiWeb_St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral_2

The parish of St. Theodosius was organized in Cleveland in 1896 by Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants living in Tremont. The founders had emigrated from Carpathian Ruthenia in Austria-Hungary (now Zakarpattia Oblast in present-day Ukraine) when the tide of Eastern European immigration to the American urban centers of the Northeast and Midwest was at an all-time high. They were originally Ruthenian Greek Catholics (also known as Byzantine Catholics) who became dissatisfied by their affiliation with the Catholic Church and followed Carpatho-Rusyn church leader Alexis Toth into Russian Orthodoxy. This same situation played out in many Eastern Catholic parishes in the US, and the results formed the core group of the present Orthodox Church in America (OCA).
The first church structure was a light-frame construction building, at Literary Rd. and W. 6th St., built in 1896. The Russian Missionary Fund established by Tsar Nicholas II provided financial assistance. The second church structure was the former Sisters of St. Joseph Convent. In 1902, the parish bought the former Sisters of St. Joseph Convent and sold 80 individual lots from the convent land to parishioners for $125 apiece to raise funds. The current cathedral is the parish's third church structure. It was completed at an estimated cost of $70,000. It was consecrated by Bishop Alexander (Nemolovsky) on Sunday, July 20, 1913.
In 1909 the parish purchased land in the Cleveland suburb of Brooklyn for a cemetery. The property had a wooden barn on it and one of the monks from St. Theodosius would come to the location on Saturdays to teach the Russian language to the children who lived too far away to attend Russian classes at the church.
Starting in 1917, the Russian Revolution and Civil War greatly impacted the Russian Empire and the Russian Orthodox Church. After the February Revolution, the Russian Provisional Government abolished the Most Holy Synod and allowed the church to restore the Patriarchate. The Most Holy Synod had administered all church property and controlled the expenditure of churches and monasteries. The Provisional Government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution of 1917. Shortly afterwards, the church elected Tikhon of Moscow to be Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'. The subsequent violence of the Russian Civil War devastated the church and the country. The Soviet government opposed the church, and many White émigrés came to Cleveland and joined St. Theodosius during this period. Longtime pastor Fr. Jason Kappanadze of Georgia was among them.
On February 25–28, 1919, the cathedral hosted the Second All-American Sobor which set a precedent, by electing Alexander (Nemolovsky) to the rank of Archbishop of the Aleutians and North America, for future elections of the Church's primates by later councils. This made him the first primate to be chosen locally in North America. The Russian Orthodox Church was weakened again and further dissociated in 1922, when the Living Church, a Soviet-supported movement, dismissed the Patriarch and restored a Synod to power.
On November 20–23, 1934, the cathedral hosted the Fifth All-American Sobor which elected primate Theophilus (Pashkovsky). On November 26–29, 1946, it hosted the Seventh All-American Sobor which broke ties between the Orthodox Church in America and Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. It was rededicated on October 3, 1954. Since the late 1950s, the clergy celebrated the liturgy in both Church Slavonic and English languages. Today there is only one Sunday liturgy and it is in English and parts in Slavonic.
On January 18, 1974, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a Cleveland Landmark.
In the summer of 1977, St. Theodosius served as the site for the wedding scene in the film The Deer Hunter. According to the film credits, the parish's own Father Stephen Kopestonsky, was cast as the priest in the scene. On June 16, 1961, it also appeared in an episode of the TV series Route 66 ("Incident On a Bridge").


WikiWeb_St. Thomas Aquinas Church (Zanesville, Ohio)_5

Structural engineers inspected the church attic on February 26, 2020, and discovered cracks in the wood trusses.  As a result, the Mid-East Ohio Building Department condemned the building until repairs could be made.  The parish adopted a plan to prevent further damage via shoring, repair the damaged timbers using steel structural channels, and make necessary cosmetic repairs.  After starting the project on April 6, the work crew discovered asbestos fiberboard insulation which was likely installed in the 1920s or 1930s.  The requisite asbestos removal delayed the shoring effort until at least May 1. Fundraising for an estimated $1.7 million dollars in repairs was approved by bishop Robert J. Brennan in July 2020, and the parish used the main church for Christmas Mass in 2021 after holding worship services at an alternate site for a time.


The first church on the site, which today is bordered by St Mary Axe and Leadenhall Street, was built in medieval times, being recorded in 1147.  It was rebuilt in the 14th century and again in 1532; this third incarnation of the building survives today. It is in the Perpendicular style with its entrance located at the base of its off-centre tower. The interior is divided into six bays, with many of the original fittings that survived Victorian renovation. Formerly, St Andrew Undershaft had one of London's few surviving large stained-glass windows, installed in the 17th century, but this was destroyed in the Baltic Exchange bombing in 1992.
The church's curious name derives from the shaft of the maypole  that was traditionally set up each year opposite the church.  The custom continued each spring until 1517, when student riots put an end to it, but the maypole itself survived until 1547 when it was seized by a mob and destroyed as a "pagan idol". According to John Stow, the chronicler who is buried here, they had it "raised from the hooks whereon it had rested for two-and-thirty years, sawn in pieces and burnt."
St Andrew Undershaft is now administered from the nearby church of St Helen's Bishopsgate. St Andrew Undershaft was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.
The tower holds a peal of six bells in the key of G, with the tenor being cast in 1597 by Robert Mot. These are now hung dead (they can only be rung stationary) inside the tower.


St Austell Bay (Cornish: Baya Ti war Dreth) is a bay on Cornwall's south coast which is bounded to the east by Gribbin Head and to the west by Black Head.
Since 1 April 2009, it has also been the name of a civil parish, one of four new parishes created on  for the St Austell area. It lies southeast of the town of St Austell and stretches along the coast from Charlestown in the north to Black Head in the south. It includes the communities of Charlestown, Duporth, Porthpean (Higher and Lower Porthpean) and Trenarren and is represented by seven councillors.


The PCC of St Barnabas Bethnal Green supports the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement and is only the second congregation to have affiliated as a body.
From 2003 to 2012, the church played a key role in St Barnabas Community Fete (also known as Bowstock), whose director was the church's vicar, Father Brian Ralph.


St Barnabas, like many similar churches in the expanding towns and cities of Victorian England, was built to minister to the spiritual and practical needs of the poor and labouring classes. The parish was formed from that of St Paul, Oxford, in 1869; St Paul's was in turn formed from parts of the parishes of St Thomas and St Giles. The church was founded by Thomas Combe (1796–1872), Superintendent of the Oxford University Press close to the church, and his wife Martha (1806–1893), now commemorated by a blue plaque installed by the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board. They were supporters of the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian movement). The first Parish Priest was Fr Montague Noel, SSC.
The architect was Sir Arthur Blomfield, a son of the Bishop of London, who had previously designed the chapel for the Radcliffe Infirmary. The architectural style is that of a Romanesque basilica, possibly modelled on San Clemente in Rome. St Barnabas has a distinctive square tower, in the form of an Italianate campanile, that is visible from the surrounding area. The church was built on land donated by George Ward, local land owner and member of the influential Ward family (named as the donor in the land conveyance etc. in the Oxford Diocesan Archives). George's brother William Ward was Mayor of Oxford on two occasions, 1851/2 and 1861/2. It was consecrated in 1869 by Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford and the campanile was completed in 1872. The pulpit was added in 1887 by Heaton, Butler and Bayne with the panels painted by Charles Floyce.
It has a ring of ten, distinctive, tubular bells, and the hours and quarters are sounded on them.


St. Blasius Church, Shanklin is a parish church in the Church of England located in Shanklin, Isle of Wight.
The church is medieval but was largely rebuilt in 1859. It is also known as Shanklin Old Church. The bell ropes hang down into the nave, so the ringers can be seen by the congregation.
It stands at the southern end of the parish at the angle made by the roads to Wroxall and Ventnor. Originally it must have been of the usual aisleless type of manorial chapel—an oblong structure with nave and chancel in one line; and so it remained till 1852, when transepts were added, the church lengthened westward and a bell turret formed at the intersection of the roofs. A lych-gate with clock and bell was put up as a memorial to Mr. White-Popham. There is a good Renaissance oak chest, apparently brought from elsewhere. There are memorial tablets to members of the Hill and Popham families. The registers date from 1717.
The funeral of the actor and singer Powis Pinder was held here in 1941.


The northern and southern shores of the bay are mainly rocky in nature, backed by cliffs up to 250 feet (76 m) high. Its eastern shore comprises a series of large and small sandy beaches between rocky sections.
The geological exposures around the bay reveal great complexity with considerable folding and faulting of the strata. The cliffs of its southern shore are formed from sandstones of Ordovician and Devonian age together with a suite of both intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks, some of which are Precambrian in age. Those in the north comprise a series of Precambrian and Cambrian age rocks of both sedimentary and igneous origin. In contrast, the eastern shore is formed from the more readily eroded rocks of Carboniferous age. These are largely the sandstones and mudstones of the Coal Measures but include a small section of shales and sandstones assigned to the Millstone Grit Series. Contorted coal seams within the Coal Measures were once worked though the Pembrokeshire Coalfield was never of major economic importance.


The bay's coast is dotted with small villages including St Brides, Martin's Haven, Little Haven, Broad Haven, Nolton Haven, Newgale and Solva, whilst Britain's smallest city, St David's lies nearby. The Pembrokeshire Coast Path follows its entire coastline.
It is well known among residents and tourists for fishing.


The floor of the church, of Welsh slate, is inscribed with the badges of over 800 RAF commands, groups, stations, squadrons and other formations. Near the entrance door is a ring of the badges of Commonwealth air forces, surrounding the badge of the RAF.
A memorial to the Polish airmen and squadrons who fought in the defence of the United Kingdom and the liberation of Europe in the Second World War is positioned on the floor of the north aisle.
Books of Remembrance listing the names of all the RAF personnel who have died in service, as well as those American airmen based in the United Kingdom who died during the Second World War.
Near the altar are plaques listing the names of RAF, Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service, and Commonwealth personnel awarded the Victoria Cross and the George Cross.


WikiWeb_St Dunstan of Canterbury Orthodox Church_0

St Dunstan of Canterbury Orthodox Church is an Antiochian Orthodox church in Parkstone, Poole, Dorset. It is the parish church for Bournemouth and Poole within the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of The British Isles and Ireland. A Grade II* listed building, the church was built in the early 20th century in Neo-Byzantine style by the architects G. A. B. Livesay, Edward Schroeder Prior and Arthur Grove as the Anglican Church of St Osmund. Its west front has been called Prior's final tour de force of church architecture.
Closed by the Church of England in 2001, and declared redundant, it subsequently became an Orthodox church and was rededicated, first as St Stephen the Great Church, and then as St Dunstan's.


WikiWeb_St Dunstan of Canterbury Orthodox Church_1

In 1904–05 Bournemouth architect G. A. B. Livesay built the eastern end of the church, establishing a Byzantine style in brick and terracotta which was followed sympathetically by the later architects. The chancel has a semi-domed apse and a semicircular ambulatory. It contains a ciborium built over the crypt, evoking the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome.
The church was completed by the Arts and Crafts architect Edward Schroeder Prior, in collaboration with Arthur Grove who seems to have concentrated on the finer detailing. It was Prior's last major work. Most was built during 1913–16, but the north aisle and transept were only completed in 1927.
Prior used multicoloured handmade bricks from Wareham, and his own patented thick handmade stained glass. He used reinforced concrete for the dome over the crossing and the barrel vaults of the aisles; flaws in the concrete necessitated some later rebuilding by other architects in 1922 and 1950. Below the dome, the column at each corner of the crossing has four terracotta angels, with outstretched wings, attached to its capital.
The imposing west front displays an eclectic mix of styles, and has been described as being prophetic of Expressionism. The central double door is surmounted by a shallow terracotta arch which extends between two flanking, polygonal turrets. Above, there is a balustrade and a 12-division terracotta wheel window containing geometrical patterns of stained glass. At the top there is an arcade surmounted by a gable, and Byzantine-style cupolas on the turrets. The church has more wheel windows, of 8 divisions, at the transept ends.
Further problems with the concrete vaulting prompted the Church of England's closure of the church in 2001.


St Edmund, King and Martyr, is an Anglican church in Lombard Street, in the City of London, dedicated to St Edmund the Martyr.
Since 2001 it houses the London Centre for Spirituality, now (2017) renamed the London Centre for Spiritual Direction, but is still a consecrated church.
In 2015, the church became an office of Ric Thorpe, Bishop of Islington and organisation he leads, Centre for Church Multiplication
Since 2019, Imprint Church organises regular worship inside of the building.
The church lies in the ward of Langbourn, and has a ward noticeboard outside.


WikiWeb_St Francis of Assisi Church, Valletta_1

After a few decades, however, the church developed structural defects and in 1681 it was built anew through the "munificence" of Grand Master Gregorio Carafa, whose coat of arms adorns the façade.
The church was enlarged in the 1920s following plans by Emanuel Borg, which also included a dome. This implied the removal of some of the frescos by Giuseppe Calì, which were replaced with others by Gianni Vella.
However the church still hosts precious works of art including paintings by Mattia Preti, Pietro Gagliardi and Filippo Paladini, as well as the titular statue of St Francis.
The church building is listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands.


John Milton buried here in 1674
The altar from St. Luke's, Old Street, which was dismantled in the 1960s due to subsidence.
The east window. Designed by the Nicholson Studios, following the pattern of the original medieval window.
Sedilia (where the priest sat) and piscina of the medieval church.
Display cabinet containing the historic treasures of Cripplegate.
John Foxe, author of "The Book of Martyrs" is buried here.
Plaque commemorating Sir Martin Frobisher, explorer and sea Captain.
Bust of John Speed, map maker and historian.
Statue of John Milton by Horace Montford
The organ. From St. Luke's, Old Street
Bust of Daniel Defoe, author of "Robinson Crusoe" and John Milton.
Busts of Oliver Cromwell and John Bunyan, author of "Pilgrim's Progress".
Portrait of Dr. William Nicholls, the first Rector of St. Luke's Church and Vicar of St. Giles'.
The West Window – shows the coats of arms of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, Milton, Cromwell and Frobisher.
The font – from St. Luke's Church.
The Cripplegate Window which celebrates the centenary of the charity The Cripplegate Foundation.
Bust of Sir William Staines, Lord Mayor of London in 1801.


The first recorded church on the site was a chapel of the Parish of Holborn attached to a monastery and leper hospital founded by Matilda of Scotland, consort of Henry I, in 1101. At the time it stood well outside the City of London and distant from the Royal Palace at Westminster, on the main road to Tyburn and Oxford. The chapel probably began to function as the church of a hamlet that grew up round the hospital. Although there is no record of any presentation to the living before the hospital was suppressed in 1539, the fact that the parish of St. Giles was in existence at least as early as 1222 means that the church was at least partially used for parochial purposes from that time.
The hospital was supported by the Crown and administered by the city for its first 200 years, being known as a Royal Peculiar. In 1299, Edward I assigned it to the Order of Saint Lazarus, one of the chivalric orders that survived from the era of the Crusades. The 14th century was turbulent for the hospital, with frequent accusations from the City authorities that members of the Order of Saint Lazarus, known as Lazar brothers, put the affairs of the monastery ahead of caring for the lepers. The king intervened on several occasions and appointed a new head of the hospital.
In 1391, Richard II sold the hospital, chapel and lands to the Cistercian abbey of St Mary de Graces, by the Tower of London. This was opposed by the Lazars, who used force to express their displeasure to Richard, and by the City of London, which withheld rent money in protest. The property at the time included 8 acres (32,000 m²) of farmland and a survey-enumerated eight horses, twelve oxen, two cows, 156 pigs, 60 geese and 186 domestic fowl. The grant was revoked in 1402 and the property returned to the Lazars. Lepers were cared for there until the mid-16th century, when the disease abated and the monastery took to caring for indigents instead.
In 1414, St Giles Fields served as the centre of Sir John Oldcastle's abortive proto-Protestant Lollard uprising directed against the Catholic Church and the English king Henry V. In anticipation of Protestantism Lollard beliefs were outlined in the 1395 The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards, which dealt with, among other things, their opposition to capital punishment, rejection of religious celibacy and belief that members of the clergy should be held accountable to civil laws. Rebel Lollards answered a summons to assemble at St. Giles's Fields on the night of Jan. 9, 1414. The king, however, was warned by his agents, and the small group of Lollards in assembly were captured or dispersed. The rebellion brought severe reprisals and marked the end of the Lollards' overt political influence and many of the captured rebels were executed. 38 were dragged on hurdles through the streets from Newgate to St Giles on January 12th, and hanged side by side in batches of four and the bodies of seven who had been condemned as heretics by the Catholic Church were burned afterwards. Four more were hanged a week later. On 14 December 1417 Sir John Oldcastle himself was hanged in chains and burnt 'gallows and all' in St Giles Fields. It is not entirely clear whether he was burnt alive.
The monastery was dissolved in 1539 in the reign of Henry VIII, its lands, excluding the church, being granted to Lord Lisle in 1548. However, the chapel survived as a local parish church, the first Rector of St Giles being appointed in 1547. The phrase "in the fields" was added to the church name.
At the time of the dissolution the hospital chapel and the parish church of St. Giles would likely have consisted of two distinct structures under a single roof, much like the arrangement still to be seen in St. Helen's Church, Bishopsgate.
The Vestry minutes of 21 April 1617, record the erection of a steeple with a peal of bells, but from the fact that "casting the bells" is mentioned as well as the buying of new bells, and from the reference to it in the following year (9 September 1618) as "the new steeple," it seems probable that something of the kind had existed before.
According to an order of the Vestry at the time of the demolition of the Medieval church in 1623, the church consisted of  a nave and a chancel, both with pillars, clerestory walls over, and aisles on either side and stood 153 feet by 65 feet


St.Giles's Parish enjoys the distinction of having originated the Great Plague of 1665. It is on record that the first persons seized were members of a family living near the top of Drury Lane, where two men, said to have been Frenchmen, were attacked by it, and speedily carried off.
The high number of plague victims buried in and around the church were the probable cause of a damp problem evident by 1711. The excessive number of burials in the parish had led to the churchyard rising as much as eight feet above the nave floor. The parishioners petitioned the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches for a grant to rebuild. Initially refused as it was not a new foundation and the Act was intended for new parishes in under-churched areas, the parish was eventually allocated £8,000 and a new church was built in 1730–1734, designed by architect Henry Flitcroft in the Palladian style. The first stone was laid by the Bishop of Norwich on Michaelmas, 29 September 1731.
The Flitcroft rebuilding represents a shift from the Baroque to the Palladian form of church building in England and has been described as 'one of the least known but most significant episodes in Georgian church design, standing at a crucial crossroads of radical architectural change and representing nothing less than the first Palladian-Revival church to be erected in London...". Nicholas Hawksmoor had been an early choice to design the new church building at St Giles but tastes had begun to turn against his freewheeling mannerist style (his recent work on the nearby St George's Bloomsbury was strongly criticised). Instead the young and inexperienced Henry Flitcroft was chosen and he would take as his inspiration and guide the Caroline buildings of Inigo Jones rather than the work of Wren, Hawksmoor or Gibbs. Only in the matter of the spire of the church, for which Palladio had no model, did Flitcroft borrow as his model the steeple of James Gibbs's St Martin's in the Fields but even then, in altering the Order and preferring a solid, belted summit, he made it all his own. The wooden model he made so that parishioners could see what they were commissioning, can still be seen in the church's north transept. The Vestry House was built at the same time.
As London grew in the 18th and 19th centuries, so did the parish's population, eventually reaching 30,000 by 1831 which suggests a high density. It included two neighbourhoods noted for poverty and squalor: the Rookery between the church and Great Russell Street, and Seven Dials. These became a centre for prostitution and crime and the name St Giles associated with the underworld, gambling houses and the consumption of gin. St Giles's Roundhouse was a jail and St Giles' Greek a thieves' cant. As the population grew, so did their dead, and eventually there was no room in the graveyard: many burials in the 18th and 19th centuries occurred in cemeteries outside the parish St Pancras.
St Giles was the last church on the route between Newgate Prison and the gallows at Tyburn, and the churchwardens paid for the condemned to have a drink (popularly named St Giles' Bowl) at the next door inn, The Angel, before they were hanged, a custom dating back to the early 15th century. The dissolute nature of the area is described in Charles Dickens' Sketches by Boz.
Architects Sir Arthur Blomfield and William Butterfield made minor alterations in 1875 and 1896. St Giles escaped direct bombing hits in the Second World War, though losing most of its Victorian stained glass to bomb blast. The church underwent major restoration in 1952–1953 adhering to Flitcroft's intentions, on which the Georgian Group and Royal Fine Art Commission were consulted and described by the journalist and poet John Betjeman as "one of the most successful post-war church restorations" (Spectator 9 March 1956). The parish today sits in a commercial district with a resident population of about 4,600.
The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 24 October 1951.


The wooden pulpit on the north side of the church was rescued from the nearby West Street Chapel (now in non-religious use). It was the pulpit from which Methodist founders John and Charles Wesley preached 1741–1793.
The two paintings of Moses and Aaron on either side of the altar are by Francisco Vieira the Younger, court painter to the King of Portugal.
The mosaic Time, Death and Judgment by G. F. Watts was formerly in St Jude's Church, Whitechapel. The cartoon for it was by Cecil Schott; it was executed by Salviati.


The church is open daily for quiet prayer and reflection, with morning prayer said daily at 8.15am, and said Holy Communion on Wednesdays at 1 pm. On Sundays, the two services are Sung Eucharist at 11 am and Evensong at 6.30 pm. Services are conducted in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 and the King James Bible.
Church music is provided by a professional quartet of singers at Sunday morning services. At Evensong it comes from a voluntary choir, founded in 2005, which is open to all and has up to 30 members. The choir has traveled widely to sing at cathedrals, including Norwich, Exeter, St Albans and Guildford.
During the week, various self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meet on church premises to assist those with addictions.
There is regular bell-ringing practice on Tuesday nights. The bells were cast in the 17th and 18th centuries.


St Ives Bridge is a 15th-century bridge crossing the River Great Ouse in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, England. It is noted for being one of only four bridges in England to incorporate a chapel (the others being at Rotherham, Wakefield, and Bradford-on-Avon).


The official dedication is The Parish Church of St James Garlickhythe with St Michael Queenhythe and Holy Trinity the Less.
The parish stretches from Gardners Lane in the west to Angel Passage in the east. Its southern border is the River Thames, and to the north it snakes through the lanes south of Cannon Street.
The area now covers seven pre-Fire parishes: St James Garlickhythe, St Michael Queenhythe, Holy Trinity the Less, St Michael Paternoster Royal, St Martin Vintry, All Hallows the Great, and All Hallows the Less.
It is also responsible for services at the nearby St Michael Paternoster Royal, which lies within the parish boundary.
Sunday and daily services are drawn from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. It is the church for more than a dozen livery companies, as well as being the church of the Intelligence Corps.
The parish has passed resolutions A and B of the Priests (Ordination of Women) Measure 1993; this means that female priests and bishops are not permitted to officiate in the church. It receives alternative episcopal oversight from the Bishop of Fulham (currently Jonathan Baker).


WikiWeb_St John the Baptist, Penshurst_9

The church has a collection of notable monuments from the 13th to the 19th century:
Two 13th century coffin slabs under the tower, one with a cross superimposed over the figure of a praying woman.
Memorial to Gilbert Spencer, d. 1730, a large tablet in the chancel.
The War Memorials and their roll of names mention the village's dead during three wars within the first half of the 20th century - the Boer War, World War I and World War II.


WikiWeb_St John the Baptist Church, Coventry_1

The church was founded in 1344 by Isabella of France, who granted the guild of St John a piece of land called "Babbelak" for the construction of a chapel in honour of God and St John the Baptist. This was to be used for their own services, but included a chantry of two priests to sing daily Mass for the royal family. The eastern part was ready for consecration on 2 May 1350.
In 1393 the number of priests was raised to nine. In the early part of the 16th century this was raised to twelve.
The church was built as a guild chapel and through various enlargements and endowments was raised to collegiate status. It remained a guild chapel until all the religious guilds were dissolved in 1548. A wall was discovered in 1875 running north and south through the middle of the chancel, which is thought to have been the east wall of the first guild chapel, while bases of two piers, near the eastern tower were thought by Sir Gilbert Scott to belong to the same early chapel which was dedicated on 6 May 1350. In 1648, the church was desecrated and used as a prison for Scots soldiers taken at the battle of Preston.
The college was dissolved in 1548; the priests were pensioned in sums varying from £5 6s. 8d. to £2 13s. 4d. Five of these pensioners were still living in 1555.


WikiWeb_St John the Baptist Church, Porthcawl_1

The church was probably built in the 1180s as the first rector was installed in 1189. It was refurbished by Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford in 1485–95 and again in 1825–27 by the rector Rev. Robert Knight who added the vestry and altered the stone pulpit. The building was restored by John Prichard and John Pollard Seddon in 1860–61 and an organ chamber was added in 1885. More restoration work in 1903 and 1927 included reflooring the nave, reroofing the porch and installing oak stalls in the chancel. A meeting room and vestry wing were added in 1993.


WikiWeb_St Just in Penwith Parish Church_3

The Selus Stone is thought to date from the late 5th or early 6th-centuries. It bears the Latin inscription Selus Ic Iacet (Selus lies here). This is thought to refer to Salomon of Cornwall, otherwise known as Saint Selevan.
Arthur Langdon (1896) recorded the existence of seven stone crosses in the parish of St Just in Penwith, including two in the vicarage garden and two at Kenidjack. Another cross has been built into the church wall; there are also crosses at Leswidden  and Nanquidno. There is a Cornish cross in the vicarage garden of Pendeen.


Stephen Charnock (1628–80), Puritan Presbyterian clergyman and theologian, was born in the parish.
Hans Holbein the Younger's grave (died 1543) has been claimed by both St Andrew Undershaft church and by St Katharine Cree. St Katharine Cree's claim is stronger because the nearby abbey had been recently destroyed, while St Andrew Undershaft's graveyard was already full.
Both Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel played the organ at the church.
Sir Nicholas Throckmorton (died 1571), diplomat and ambassador, is buried in the church.


St Lawrence was built on Dial Lane in the heart of present-day Ipswich. The upper section of the tower was rebuilt in 1882 by the London firm of Barnes and Gaye. The new Victorian design consists of floral and geometric flintwork patterns and includes the initials S. and L. Unusually, the modifications also removed the central aisle from the nave in an attempt to prevent celebration of the High Anglican liturgy. It served as a parish church until the early 1970s, when the parish was declared redundant by the diocese due to its having no members.
Care of the building was handed over to the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust (IHCT) and the church fell into disrepair. After deliberations over future usage and subsequent extensive renovations, the church was reopened as a community restaurant and gallery in July 2008. The £1.2 million cost of the restorations came from Ipswich Borough Council and UK government grants.


The church has exceptionally fine 17th-century woodwork from other now-demolished Wren churches. Among the best are the
reredos, communion rails and baptismal font, which are thought to be by Grinling Gibbons from St Olave, Old Jewry, the pulpit sounding board and the rood screen from All-Hallows-the-Great. Two paintings of Moses and Aaron flank the high altar, and came from St Christopher le Stocks when it was demolished in 1781. The organ was built by George Pike England in 1801. It was restored in 1984, stands in its original case  and contains nearly all its original pipework.
The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.


The organ is a Bernard Schmidt design dating from 1684. There are carvings by Grinling Gibbons inside. The contemporary carvings in the church are also attributed to three joiners, Athew, Draper and Poulden, and to the carvers Cooper and William Newman. There are organ recitals every other Monday; chamber music every Wednesday and Friday.
A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.
Past organists at St Martin include:
Frederick Albert Bridge (b. 1841 – d. 1917)


St Mary Aldermary was badly damaged in the Great Fire of London of 1666, although parts of its walls and tower survived.  It was mostly rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in a Gothic style. A legacy of £5,000 had been left by one Henry Rogers for the rebuilding of a church, and his widow agreed to use it to fund the reconstruction of St Mary's. According to some sources, she stipulated that the new church should be an exact imitation of the one largely destroyed.
The church as rebuilt has an aisled nave, six bays long, with a clerestory. There is a short chancel. The tower is attached to the south west corner of the building, and is entered through a western lobby. It is divided into storeys by string courses; the corners have octagonal turrets, terminating in what George Godwin called "carved finials of impure design". The nave and aisles are separated by arcades of clustered columns, supporting somewhat flattened Gothic arches. The ceilings are decorated with elaborate plaster fan vaulting. The east wall of the chancel is set askew in relation to the axis of the church.
According to Nikolaus Pevsner, St Mary Aldemary is "the chief surviving monument of the 17th-century Gothic revival in the City and – with Warwick – the most important late 17th-century Gothic church in England".
The parish of the church of St Thomas the Apostle, destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt, was united with that of St Mary's.
In 1781 a new organ was installed, built by George England and Hugh Russell.


In January 2010, the Bishop and Archdeacon of London invited the Moot Community to make their home in St Mary Aldermary. Moot is a Church of England community in the new monastic tradition. Members annually commit to live by a "rhythm of life", which encompasses spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation and presence, and values such as acceptance, balance, creativity and hospitality. The community is currently in a process of discernment about whether it has a vocation as a Church of England Acknowledged Religious Community.
Daily prayer, regular worship services, meditation and discussion groups go on in the church, and the community also hosts conferences and courses on subjects such as justice in economics, conflict resolution or mindfulness. The church hosts regular art exhibitions and installations, and retreat days. It is home to a café, Host, which sells fair trade coffee and goods, and there is a small market of food stalls outside the church on weekdays.
Since 2007, the church has been the Regimental Church of the Royal Tank Regiment.


The choir have released numerous recordings, as well as touring Europe and North America.


"St Margaret Lothbury & St Mary Woolnoth | Church of England Parish Churches at the Heart of the City of London". stml.org.uk. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
"The London Encyclopaedia" Hibbert,C;Weinreb,D;Keay,J: London, Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev 1993,2008) ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5
"The City of London Churches: monuments of another age" Quantrill, E; Quantrill, M p106: London; Quartet; 1975
"The City Churches" Tabor, M. p125:London; The Swarthmore Press Ltd; 1917
Pevsner, Nikolaus; Bradley, S (1998). London:the City Churches. New Haven: Yale. ISBN 0-300-09655-0.
"The Old Churches of London" Cobb,G: London, Batsford, 1942
"The Visitors Guide to the City of London Churches" Tucker,T: London, Friends of the City Churches, 2006 ISBN 0-9553945-0-3
British Listed Buildings Church of St Mary Woolnoth, City of London
Diocese of London St Edmund & St Mary Woolnoth
"Elizabethan Flagons from the Church of St Mary Woolnoth". Mutual Art. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
Blanton, C. D. "London".  In Jason Harding (ed.). T. S. Eliot in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-139-50015-9.
Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor, Hamish Hamilton, 1985 '
Betjeman, John (1967). The City of London Churches. Pitkin Pictorials. ISBN 0-85372-112-2.


WikiWeb_St Mary de Haura Church, Shoreham-by-Sea_3

St Mary de Haura Church was listed at Grade I by English Heritage on 8 May 1950.  Such buildings are defined as being of "exceptional interest" and of the greatest national importance.  As of February 2001, it was one of seven Grade I listed buildings, and 119 listed buildings of all grades, in Adur district.
The parish, which was established in the late 12th century when the church became independent from St Nicolas' Church, is small—the extent of its land area is 116 acres (47 ha).  It covers the ancient grid-pattern town centre and High Street area, as well as a small section of land on the west side of the River Adur.
The main service of the week is the Sunday morning Eucharistic service at 10.00am.  A Sunday evening service is also held every week; these include traditional Evensong and ecumenical services with Shoreham-by-Sea's other churches.  Although St Nicolas' Church, inland at Old Shoreham, is older, St Mary de Haura's size and central location makes it the de facto "town church" of Shoreham-by-Sea, and it is the venue for regular events such as Remembrance Sunday and the services of Holy Week and Christmas.


WikiWeb_St Mary on Paddington Green Church_1

The present building is the third church on the site, once forming a centrepiece of the ancient villages of Paddington and Lilestone. John Donne preached his first sermon in the original church and William Hogarth was married in the second.
 The current Georgian church was commissioned in 1788 and consecrated in 1791. Designed by John Plaw with a Greek Cross ground plan, in yellow London stock brick dressed with white stone. It is one of two confirmed surviving buildings by Plaw in the UK, along with Belle Isle on Windermere. A further building in Romford, known as The Round House, has been attributed to him. John Plaw later worked in Southampton before emigrating to Canada, where he designed several public and private buildings.
The church was altered in the 19th century but was restored to its mid-Georgian appearance by architect Raymond Erith in the early 1970s using some of the compensation for the construction of the urban motorway Westway, alongside the church. Restoration included the chancel being reinstated in its original form, the nave reseated with box pews and the organ moved to the West end. The organ case is dedicated as a memorial to Erith. The church houses monuments to some of the area's residents, including sculptor Joseph Nollekens and lexicographer Peter Mark Roget.


There is a four-bay nave with north and south aisles, a three-bay chancel with north and south transepts, a north vestry and a south chapel. Inside the porch a railed wooden staircase provides access to the belfry and the western gallery.
The south arcade, from about 1210, has circular columns, one still with a trumpet-scalloped capital. The north arcade has octagonal columns and re-used 14th century capitals. The pointed tower arch, of three chamfered orders, is blocked and flanked by semi-circular headed niches. The chancel arch is pointed, has dog-tooth moulding and is supported on short columns with foliated capitals. Similar detailing has been used by Street throughout the chancel.
Throughout the church there are wagon roofs, plastered in the nave and aisles and ornately painted in the chancel and transepts. The chancel has piscina, sedilia and aumbry, above which the continuous east window sill string forms a hood. Some of the wall panelling in the north aisle, and the boxing in the ringing chamber probably re-used woodwork from the 17th century pews.
Other fittings include a Last Supper reredos in alabaster, and cast iron altar rails and parcloses. The Vernon Chapel has a 17th-century oak altar table from St Helen's, Worcester. In the north transept is an elaborately painted organ case housing a Nicholson two-manual instrument, built in about 1860, with a broader specification than is common for nearby Nicholson parish church instruments of similar age. The nave has a 19th-century font, an elegant late 18th-century west gallery and some 17th-century panelling. The box pews, which were installed in 1872, are mostly now reduced in height – only those of the Bearcroft family in the north aisle and the Vernon family servants in the south aisle, retain their original height.
In the north aisle are the original artist's models of the Nativity and Resurrection panels for the reredos of Liverpool Cathedral, by Walter Gilbert founder of the Bromsgrove Guild, and Louis Weingartner one of his craftsmen. In the south aisle is an early 16th-century relief and the parish chest. In the tower is a late 18th-century bread dole cupboard and more 17th-century panelling. The musicians' gallery at the west end bears the Royal Coat of Arms of Elizabeth II, carved in 1953 by Celestino Pancheri of the Bromsgrove Guild. The elegant baroque chandelier was gifted by Thomas Parkes in 1795.
There are numerous memorials including, in the Vernon Chapel, a large monument to Thomas Vernon (died 1721) by Stanton and Horsnaile. It has a semi-reclining effigy flanked by the figures of Justice and Learning and behind this, Corinthian columns supporting an open pediment. There is also a standing monument of Bowater Vernon (died 1835) by Roubiliac, a large marble relief panel by Chantrey to Thomas Taylor Vernon (died 1837) and a late 17th-century memorial to Richard Vernon (died 1678).
In the chancel is a wall memorial to Richard Vernon (died 1627) with two kneeling figures set within a recess. In the nave is a large relief panel to Thomas Vernon (died 1771). The east window of the Vernon Chapel and north transept there is 19th century glass. The Victorian east window has a magnificent array of glazing bars and cost £141. It depicts scenes from the Passion and Resurrection.
There are a number of memorial tablets to members of the Bearcroft family who lived in Hanbury at Mere Hall (now also a Grade I listed building). The family grew in status from 1430 onwards and family ownership of Mere Hall ended only in 1974.
High on the west wall of the North Aisle hangs a Queen Anne Charities Board from 1713. Loaves given by Sir John Hanbury's charity were placed in a dole cupboard with slatted door. This was originally against the south wall of the porch, but is now next to the pulpit.
The peal of eight bells dates from 1678 and is in excellent order.


The first chapel in Mortlake, founded in 1348, stood on the river side of the High Street, on a site later occupied by Mortlake Brewery. The only surviving relic is a 15th-century font presented to this church by Archbishop Bourchier (c.1404–86).
The present churchyard and church were given to the parish by King Henry VIII in 1543, an event commemorated by a stone in the west front of the tower. Its inscription "VIVAT RH8 1543" is dismissed by Cherry and Pevsner as "bogus".
The 1543 building has undergone many alterations and enlargements during its long history and, of the original Tudor church, only the tower remains.  The belfry and the cupola are a distinctive feature of the tower which appears as a landmark in many historic prints and pictures of the Thames bank. The current appearance of the church is mostly the work of local architect Sir Arthur Blomfield, who built the chancel in 1885; his firm built the nave in 1905.
The vestry house dates from 1670. It was restored in 1979/80.


St Mawes Castle (Cornish: Kastel Lannvowsedh) is an artillery fort constructed by Henry VIII near Falmouth, Cornwall, between 1540 and 1542. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the Carrick Roads waterway at the mouth of the River Fal. The castle was built under the direction of Thomas Treffry to a clover leaf design, with a four-storey central tower and three protruding, round bastions that formed gun platforms. It was initially armed with 19 artillery pieces, intended for use against enemy shipping, operating in partnership with its sister castle of Pendennis on the other side of the estuary. During the English Civil War, St Mawes was held by Royalist supporters of King Charles I, but surrendered to a Parliamentary army in 1646 in the final phase of the conflict.
The castle continued in use as a fort through the 18th and 19th centuries. In the early 1850s, fears of a fresh conflict with France, combined with changes in military technology, led to the redevelopment of the fortification. The out-dated Henrician castle was turned into a barracks and substantial gun batteries were constructed beneath it, equipped with the latest naval artillery. In the 1880s and 1890s an electrically operated minefield was laid across the River Fal, operated from St Mawes and Pendennis, and new, quick-firing guns were installed at St Mawes to support these defences. After 1905, however, St Mawes' guns were removed, and between 1920 and 1939 it was run by the state as a tourist attraction.
Brought back into service in the Second World War, naval artillery and an anti-aircraft gun were installed at the castle to defend against the risk of German attack. With the end of the war, St Mawes again returned to use as a tourist attraction. In the 21st century, the castle is operated by English Heritage. The castle has elaborate, carved 16th-century decorations including sea monsters and gargoyles, and the historian Paul Pattison has described the site as "arguably the most perfect survivor of all Henry's forts".
The castle is a scheduled monument and Grade I listed building.


The castle continued in use as a fort through the 18th and 19th centuries under the command of successive captains, still operating in conjunction with Pendennis. A review by Colonel Christian Lilly in 1714 reported that the fortification was in a satisfactory condition, and in the 1730s, St Mawes was equipped with 17 artillery pieces, including six 24-pounder (11 kg) cannons, mostly positioned in the batteries beneath the Henrician castle. Britain's wars with France in the late-18th century made the defence of Falmouth critical and from 1775 until 1780 the local militia was called up to defend St Mawes. By the 1780s, the castle was equipped with over 30 pieces of heavy artillery. There were repeated concerns emerged about its ordnance, however, and an inspection in 1797 during the French Revolutionary Wars found that only one 24-pounder gun was serviceable.
In 1796, a new gun battery was created at St Anthony Head, just along the coast from St Mawes. For a period this battery became the primary defensive position on the east side of the estuary, although in 1805 St Mawes was still armed with ten 24-pounder guns. The poet Lord Byron, visiting in 1809, complained that St Mawes was "extremely well calculated for annoying every body except an enemy", and commented that the fort was garrisoned by only one, elderly man. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the St Anthony's battery was closed but St Mawes remained in use, albeit being operated once again on a "care and maintenance" basis in the post-war years.
Falmouth Harbour became one of the most important ports in England during the 19th century, attracting much of the transatlantic shipping trade. The Tudor office of the captaincy was abolished in 1849, with the death of the final incumbent, Sir George Nugent, and the command of the garrison became a regular military appointment.  In the early 1850s, fears of a conflict with France led to a review of the state of the harbour's defences. The development of ironclad warships equipped with rifled guns meant that St Mawes required a comprehensive overhaul. A new Grand Sea Battery and magazine was built beneath the Henrician castle, linked with deep passages, and equipped with eight 56-pound (25 kg) and four 64-pounder (29 kg) rifled muzzle loader guns. The old castle was used as a barracks but, since it could only hold 30 men, St Mawes was typically used as a training base and manned by militia and volunteer units.
Fresh concerns about France rose in the 1880s, and an electrically operated minefield was laid across Carrick Roads in 1885, jointly controlled from St Mawes and Pendennis. Additional contact mines were added, forcing incoming vessels to sail into a channel alongside St Mawes, illuminated with electric search lights. As part of this transformation, the castle's 64-pounder guns were partially replaced with light, quick-firing guns in the 1890s, able to engage any torpedo boats or mine sweepers attempting to break through the defences. The batteries for these were found to be poorly sited, and an additional battery was therefore built above the Henrician castle between 1900 and 1901, again for housing quick-firing guns.


In the late 1850s, the Drapers' Company, motivated by legislation that would have forced them to hand certain funds over to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners if they were not spent on St Michael's, decided to fund a lavish scheme of embellishment, and asked George Gilbert Scott to carry out the work.
Scott demolished a house that had stood against the tower, replacing it with an elaborate porch, built in the "Franco-Italian Gothic" style (1858–1860), facing towards Cornhill. It is decorated with carving by John Birnie Philip, including  a high-relief tympanum sculpture depicting "St Michael disputing with Satan". Scott inserted Gothic tracery into the circular clerestory windows, and into the plain round-headed windows on the south side of the church. New side windows were created in the chancel, and an elaborate stone reredos, incorporating the paintings of Moses and Aaron by Robert Streater from its predecessor, was constructed in an Italian Gothic style. A contemporary account of the work explained that this was appropriate since "the classical feeling which pervades the Italian school of Gothic art enabled the architect to bring the classical features of the building into harmony with the Gothic treatment which our present sympathies demand". The chancel walls were lined with panels of coloured marble, up to the level of the top of the reredos columns, and richly painted above this point. It was said that Scott "proposes to brighten all the roof with colour... and he fuses the vaulting into something transitional between Pointed and Italian. And he inserts tracery in all the round-headed windows, and the great ugly stable-like circles of the clerestory become roses under his plastic hand."
Stained glass by Clayton and Bell was installed, with a representation of Christ in Glory in the large circular east window. Its splays were enriched with inlaid and carved marble, with four heads in high relief enclosed in medallions. The other windows contained a series of stained glass images illustrating the life of Christ, with the crucifixion at the west end.
A further campaign of medievalising decoration was carried out in the late 1860s by Herbert Williams, who had worked with Scott on the earlier scheme. Williams built a three-bay cloister-like passage, with plaster vaults, on the south side of the building, and in the body of the church added richly painted decoration to Wren's columns and capitals. The reredos was enriched with inlaid marble, and the chancel was given new white marble steps and a mosaic floor of Minton’s tesserae and tiles. In what the Building News described as a "startling novelty", a circular opening was cut in the vault of each aisle bay and filled with stained glass, and skylights installed above.
Few original furnishings were retained in its Victorian re-imagining, but the 1672 font given by James Paul survived, although a new balustrade was added.


WikiWeb_St Michael and All Angels Church, Hawkshead_0

St Michael and All Angels Church is in the village of Hawkshead, Cumbria, England.  It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Windermere, the archdeaconry of Westmorland and Furness, and the diocese of Carlisle.  Its benefice is united with those of four local parishes to form the Benefice of Hawkshead with Low Wray and Sawrey and Rusland and Satterthwaite.  The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.  Hyde and Pevsner, in the Buildings of England series, describe it as being "one of the best Lake District churches".


WikiWeb_St Michael and All Angels Church, Mottram_4

The oldest item in the church is the barrel-shaped Norman font.  Above the chancel arch are painted panels containing the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and Creed, together with a painting of Moses and Aaron.  The alabaster pulpit of 1885 is by Harry Hems.  The brass chandelier is dated 1755.  The stained glass windows include one by Kempe.
The Hollingworth Chapel is now used as a choir vestry and meeting room, the organ having been replaced by an electronic instrument in 1998. In the chapel is a white marble monument to Reginald Bretland who died in 1703. The Staveley Chapel contains two sandstone effigies which are thought to be those of Sir Ralph Staveley (or Staveleigh) and his wife dating from the early 15th century.  There is a ring of eight bells which were cast in 1910 by John Taylor and Company.  The parish registers date from 1559 for marriages and burials and from 1562 for baptisms.


The first church was founded before 1154, with a chancel extending over the south gate of the city.  The gate and old church were demolished to make way for the rebuilding of Bristol Bridge, and the church was rebuilt in 1762–1769 by James Bridges and Thomas Paty, who rebuilt the spire. Part of the old church and town wall survives in the 14th-century crypt.
The interior was destroyed by bombing in the Bristol Blitz of 1940 and rebuilt in 1974–1975 as a church museum. This closed in 2007 and the building was used by the city council as offices. The building once held statues of King Edward I and King Edward III which were removed from Arno's Court Triumphal Arch. The original statues were taken from Bristol's Lawfords' Gate that was demolished around 1760. Other statues are 13th-century figures from Bristol's Newgate representing Robert, the builder of Bristol Castle, and Geoffrey de Montbray, bishop of Coutances, builder of the fortified walls of Bristol. They were moved to the church, due to their deteriorating condition, in 1898.
It currently holds one of only two public commissions by Hogarth, the tripartite altarpiece (Bristol Museum ref K2429-K2431), Sealing the Tomb which was originally painted for St Mary Redcliffe Church in 1755. The painting remained at St Mary Redcliffe until 1858, when the Victorian community mounted a campaign to remove those furnishings which were not in keeping with the church's original Gothic character.  The three paintings were sold for £20 to the Bristol Academy for the Promotion of the Fine Arts (later to become the Royal West of England Academy).  In 1910 their sale was again proposed, prompting the Bristol Times and Mirror to comment "Bristol will be looked upon as one of those places which prefer hard cash to art treasures" (Bristol Times and Mirror, 22 February 1910). In 1955 the paintings were passed over to Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and restored whilst residing in St Nicholas' church.
The building has been designated as a grade II* listed building.


The church dates from the 13th century, with additions and alterations since.  It was restored in the early 19th century. During the 1960s and 1970s it suffered from decay and vandalism, but repairs have been carried out since it was vested with the Churches Conservation Trust.


St Nicholas Church is in the village of Burton, Ellesmere Port and Neston, Cheshire, England.  It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.  It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Wirral South.  Its benefice is combined with that of St Michael, Shotwick.


St Nicholas stands on a triangular plot of land at the intersection of Poulton Road, Highbury Avenue and Broadway. Whilst modern in appearance, it is traditional in form, comprising a central tower, nave, chancel, north and south porches, and ancillary rooms. King's design was intended to resemble the upturned keel of a ship, reflecting the seafaring aspects both of the town and of St Nicholas himself.
The external construction of the church is largely of light brown brick. There is no stone or concrete used anywhere. The other prominent external feature is the series of steeply-pitched copper roofs, whose green patina contrasts with the orange-brown brickwork. The large square central tower is composed of two, tall tapering brick slabs on the east and west faces, and flat recessed plain-glass windows on the north and south faces. The nave and chancel roofs are very steeply pitched, but the nave roof is considerably higher, extending over the aisles. Each of the roofs has three sharply pitched dormers on each side, those on the chancel being smaller than those on the nave. The overall effect is intended to be reminiscent of the sails of a ship.
While the exterior is sharply angular, the interior is dominated by pointed arches. Construction is of the same light-brown brick as the exterior, although contrasted with pale pointing. Centrally placed on the west wall is the organ (1961). The instrument is a 2 manual and pedal pipe organ, probably the last to be built by the firm of J J Binns.  It is a 5 rank extension organ, with 4 ranks totally enclosed in a swell box and the 5th rank, a diapason, on display to the side and above the console. ,  The high altar, under the tower, is raised on a two-step plinth. Beyond the high altar, in the chancel, is the Lady Chapel, with an abstract stained glass window; the only stained glass in the church. Laurence King designed the three large painted wood carvings prominent in the interior: a Madonna and a St Nicholas on either side of the chancel arch and a Crucifix in the chancel.


WikiWeb_St Nicholas Church, Nottingham_1

St Nicholas Church is one of the three medieval Christian foundations still existing in Nottingham, the others being St Peter's Church and St Mary's Church.
A church of St Nicholas was erected on the site of the present building  in the eleventh or twelfth century. This building was destroyed in 1643 during  the English Civil War. The Royalists established themselves in the tower of the old church, and bombarded the garrison of the Castle. In 1643 the governor of the castle, Colonel Hutchinson ordered the old church to be completely destroyed and  for 28 years - from 1643 to 1671 - there was no Church of St. Nicholas in Nottingham. In 1671 a new church was being constructed with completion in 1678, the church which exists today.
The Marriage, Burial and Baptism Registers begin in 1562. Other documents deeds, indentures, ecclesiastical licences, terriers (or inventories of church property) - date from 1671. The Vestry Books contain accounts of elections and church meetings from 1703 onwards. No burials have taken place in the churchyard since 1881.


St Peter Mancroft has a ring of fourteen Whitechapel bells in the western tower, eleven of which date from 1775 and the latest of which dates from 1997. St Peter Mancroft is important in the history of change ringing because in 1715, 5040 changes of Plain Bob Triples were rung for the first time, in 3 hours and 17 minutes, as recorded in an inscription in the tower. Subsequently, the first complete peals to the change ringing systems known as Grandsire and Stedman were also rung in St Peter Mancroft.
Supernatural folklore is linked to the bells in St Peter Mancroft. In the story "Our Bells" authored by Mark Knights, which featured in the undated booklet (circa 1894) "Norfolk Stories", Knight writes:
This story was suggested by a visit to the steeple of St Peter Mancroft many years ago - when Mr P. Back was churchwarden - on the invitation of the late Mr Potter, father of Mr Potter, the present sexton.
The story tells of how a nobleman, fallen upon hard times, unwittingly tries to rob his own brother, but stays his hand after hearing the moving and beautiful Christmas Eve peal of bells. He subsequently assists in the ringing of the New Year's Eve peal, and bequeaths a sum of money to ensure that a jug of spiced ale  is made available to future bell-ringers on that date. The story is recounted by a ghostly descendant of the sexton who was in residence when these events occurred.
In 2018 the Mancroft Ringing Discovery Centre was opened, to promote the history of the bell-tower and to train a new generation of bell-ringers.


WikiWeb_St Peter ad Vincula, South Newington_3

St Peter ad Vincula was granted to the Benedictine abbey at Eynsham in the 1160s, and remained one of its possessions until the abbey was suppressed in the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538. In 1565 the advowson was passed to Exeter College, Oxford, which retained it until 1979. St Peter ad Vincula is now part of a single Church of England benefice with the parishes of Bloxham and Milcombe.


WikiWeb_St Peter and St Paul, Checkendon_1

An active church in the Church of England, the Church of St Peter and St Paul is part of the diocese of Oxford, which is in the Province of Canterbury. It is in the archdeaconry of Oxford and the deanery of Henley-on-Thames. It forms a benefice with the churches at Ipsden, North Stoke, Stoke Row, Whitchurch and Woodcote.


The church site forms part of the core of the territory of the Darug Coastal Nation. The geological formation of the study area is described as part of the Wianamatta Group and chiefly Ashfield Shale resulting in clay soils supporting an indigenous forest vegetation structure dominated by Turpentine and Ironbark tree association.


WikiWeb_St Philip and St Jacob, Bristol_5

St Philip and St Jacob is one of the original parishes of Bristol.  It includes the Old Market area, and extended beyond the original city boundaries to include what are now the Bristol districts of Baptist Mills, Barton Hill, Lawrence Hill, Newtown, Russell Town, St Jude's, St Philips Marsh, The Dings and part of Easton.  A growing population in the 19th century led to the building of ten new churches in the east of the parish, seven of which have now closed.  In 1871 Greenbank Cemetery was opened as a burial place for the whole parish.
The ancient parish lay within the hundred of Barton Regis.


WikiWeb_St Saviour Church, Richmond Hill_0

St Saviour Church in Richmond Hill, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England is an active Anglican parish church in the archdeaconry of Leeds and the Diocese of Leeds.


St Stephen Walbrook is a church in the City of London, part of the Church of England's Diocese of London. The present domed building was erected  to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren following the destruction of its medieval predecessor in the Great Fire of London in 1666.  It is located in Walbrook, next to the Mansion House, and near to Bank and Monument Underground stations.


The church suffered slight damage from bombing during the London Blitz of 1941 and was later restored. In 1954, the united parishes of St Mary Bothaw and St Swithin London Stone (merged in 1670) were themselves united with the parish of St Stephen.
The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.
In 1953 the Samaritans charity was founded  by the rector of St Stephen's, Dr Chad Varah. The first Samaritans branch (known as Central London Branch) operated from a crypt beneath the church before moving to Marshall Street in Soho. In tribute to this, a telephone is preserved in a glass box in the church. The Samaritans began with this telephone, and today the voluntary organisation staffs a 24-hour telephone hot-line for people in emotional need.
In 1987, as part of a major programme of repairs and reordering, a massive white polished stone altar commissioned from the sculptor Henry Moore by churchwarden Peter Palumbo was installed in the centre of the church. Its unusual positioning required the authorisation of a rare judgement of the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved. In 1993 a circle of brightly coloured kneelers designed by Patrick Heron was added around the altar.
Benjamin West's  Devout men taking away the body of St Stephen, previously hung on the north interior wall, was put into storage following the reordering. This decision was controversial, as the initial removal of the painting was illegal. In 2013 the church was given permission to sell the painting to a foundation, despite opposition from the London Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches, and by the Church of England's Church Buildings Council. Prior to the painting's export, a temporary export bar was placed on it to give it a last chance to stay in the UK. The foundation has since loaned it to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which has undertaken restoration work on the painting.
On 14 July 1994, the church was the venue for the wedding of Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones to Daniel Chatto.
At the time of his retirement in 2003, at the age of 92, Dr Chad Varah was the oldest serving incumbent in the Church of England.


WikiWeb_Staatsburgh State Historic Site_0

The Staatsburgh State Historic Site preserves a Beaux-Arts mansion designed by McKim, Mead, and White and the home's surrounding landscape in the hamlet of Staatsburg, Dutchess County, New York, United States. The historic site is located within Ogden Mills & Ruth Livingston Mills State Park. The mansion, a New York State Historic Site, is considered a fine example of the great estates built during the Gilded Age.


It is named after Félix Mayol, a very popular concert hall singer from Toulon who had succeeded in Paris in the early 20th century. A true-blue city boy, he offered to buy a piece of land for the club on which the stadium would be built. And so he did. He gave his personal money and gave up the rights on some of his songs to raise the rest. The least that could be done was to give the place the name of its generous patron.
It was inaugurated on March 28, 1920 by the mayor of Toulon and Félix Mayol himself. A cross-country race was organised, as well as a soccer match between Stade Raphaëlois from Saint-Raphaël and the RC Toulon football team (4-0) and a rugby match between RCT and TOEC from Toulouse (3-3).
All Blacks and Wallaby tourists played matches there against regional South-East selections.


In early 2012, then-club president Tommaso Ghirardi noted that the club's two postponed home matches in that period would have gone ahead if all the stands were under cover and that the covering of the curve should become reality. The club could also choose to move to a new stadium, although this would go against Ghirardi's public pronouncements. Rather, he preferred to talk of his dream of renovating the stadium, while managing director Pietro Leonardi has spoken of potential to buy the stadium from the relevant municipal authorities. In November 2012, Leonardi said he wanted "to put an end to the situation where our people, in 2012, have to follow the match in the rain" by adding a roof to uncovered parts of the stadium (i.e. the Curva Sud and the Curva Nord). There are also rumours of a much more expensive €200 million reconstruction on the current stadium's site encompassing a shopping centre, car park, gym and multiplex cinema, rather than a move to the north of the city in Moletolo or Baganzola as sometimes mooted. This would likely require a temporary move away from Parma (probably to the Stadio Mario Rigamonti in Brescia), but any substantial work on the Tardini would require significant external investment.
Rather than renovate the Tardini, the club's leadership has instead opted to make improvements to its wholly owned training centre in Collecchio, completed in late 2012. Municipal support for any work seems especially unlikely after Federico Pizzarotti, elected sindaco of Parma in May 2012, ruled the use of public money out in November 2012. The state of stadium ownership in Italy, where only Juventus owns its own stadium, is widely regarded as unsatisfactory.
The stadium falls short of UEFA competition standards and therefore would not be allowed to host UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League matches. The reason for this is the inadequacy of this stadium's facilities. For example, the seats' backrests, which must be at least 30 cm high are below the requirement by 15 cm in some areas of the ground.  Such an improvement would require an investment of at least €1,500,000. As well install new seating, the dressing rooms, medical facilities and west stand would require renovation. The cost of these measures means the likely host of any European fixtures played by the club would be Modena F.C.'s Stadio Alberto Braglia.