Avenue St. Andrew's is a

United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. Origins and history The United Reformed Church resulte ...

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, England. Part of the church building is Grade II listed.

History

Above Bar Congregational Church

The church was founded in 1662 under the ministry of the Rev. Nathaniel Robinson.The History of Avenue St Andrew's URC
Accessed 20 September 2007 The father of hymn-writer

Isaac Watts Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English Congregational minister, hymn writer, theologian, and logician. He was a prolific and popular hymn writer and is credited with some 750 hymns. His works include "When I Survey the ...

(also named Isaac Watts) was a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

of the church.'Southampton: Churches, public buildings and charities', A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 3 (1908), pp. 524-37. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=42037. Date accessed: 20 September 2007. The congregation having outgrown the original chapel, a new building was erected on the site in 1727. This was later demolished in 1819 and replaced by an even larger building, the first stone of which was laid on 1 April 1819, and the building was completed on 20 April 1820, having cost nearly £6,000. A re-opening service was held on 6 November 1889. The Church was the main Non-Conformist church in the city in the nineteenth century, when it was known as Above Bar Independent Chapel (later on becoming Above Bar Congregational Chapel, the oldest church in the

Congregational Union Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs it ...

). The pastor from 1810 to 1868 was Rev. Thomas Adkins.A History of Southampton, Vol 3, A.Temple Patterson On 30 November 1940, during the

second world war World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the church building was destroyed by

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

bombing. As a result, many of the congregation began attending the nearby St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. The minister of Above Bar Congregational Church, Rev Maxwell Jones, also moved to St. Andrew's and was formally recognised as the minister of the latter.

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church

St. Andrew's

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

Church was founded in 1853, on the corner of Brunswick Place and Dorset Street. By the 1970s, the congregation had dwindled since much of the surrounding housing had been demolished. In the early 1980s, a survey of the building showed that £150,000 was needed to keep it safe. The decision was made to merge with the nearby Avenue Church since both had become

es following the 1972 merger of the Presbyterian Church of England and many churches within the

. The St. Andrew's buildings were subsequently demolished and replaced with offices.

Avenue Congregational Church

Avenue Congregational Church was opened on Wednesday, 7 December 1898. After the decision to combine the St. Andrew's and Avenue congregations, the church became known as Avenue St. Andrew's.

References

External links

Official site of Avenue St. Andrew's ChurchLocation of Above Bar Independent Chapel on 1846 map of Southampton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southampton, Avenue St. Andrew's United Reformed Church Churches in Southampton Grade II listed churches in Hampshire United Reformed churches in Hampshire