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Holy Trinity Brompton with St Paul's, Onslow Square and St Augustine's, South Kensington, often referred to simply as HTB, is an Anglican
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...
in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England. The church consists of six sites: HTB Brompton Road, HTB Onslow Square (formerly St Paul's, Onslow Square), HTB Queen's Gate (formerly St Augustine's, South Kensington), HTB Courtfield Gardens (formerly
St Jude's Church, Kensington St Jude's Church, Courtfield Gardens, Kensington, London, was designed by architects George Godwin and Henry Godwin, and built between 1867–70; the tower and spire were constructed in 1879. It was built on the northern portion of Captain Rober ...
– officially in the parish of St Mary of the Bolton's but part of HTB), as well as being the home of the
St Paul's Theological Centre St Paul's Theological Centre (SPTC) is a British centre for theological learning, based at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) in South Kensington, London. It is led by its principal, the Reverend Russell Winfield. SPTC runs a four-week Monday evening cou ...
and the Alpha Course, HTB St. Francis Dalgarno Way and St Luke's Earls Court St Luke's Church Redcliffe Gardens. It is where the Alpha Course was first developed and is one of the most influential churches in the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
. The church buildings accommodate Alpha, other courses, conferences and meetings during the week and ten services each Sunday. With total Sunday service attendance at around 4,500 people and the Alpha course attracting several hundred guests during the week, HTB oversees a diverse range of activities. HTB's vision statement is to "play our part in the evangelization of the nations, the revitalization of the church and the transformation of society." HTB's aim is for an Alpha Course to be accessible to anyone who would like to attend the course. In this way, HTB seeks to spread the teachings of Christianity.
Nicky Gumbel Nicholas Glyn Paul Gumbel (born 1955), known as Nicky Gumbel, is an English Anglican priest and author in the evangelical and charismatic traditions. He is known as the developer of the Alpha Course, a basic introduction to Christianity supp ...
, the developer of the Alpha course, took over as vicar of HTB from Sandy Millar in July 2005, followed by Archie Coates in September 2022. The associate vicar is Katherine Chow, who took over from Nicky Lee and Martyn Layzell in 2020.


History


Holy Trinity

Prior to the construction of Holy Trinity Brompton, the present site was a part of the large
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
of Kensington which was served only by the nearby
St Mary Abbots St Mary Abbots is a church located on Kensington High Street and the corner of Kensington Church Street in London W8. The present church structure was built in 1872 to the designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott, who combined neo-Gothic and early ...
church. In the early 1820s the area was in the midst of a substantial population increase, so a decision was taken to purchase land and construct a new church. The church was a
Commissioners' church A Commissioners' church, also known as a Waterloo church and Million Act church, is an Anglican church in the United Kingdom built with money voted by Parliament as a result of the Church Building Acts of 1818 and 1824. The 1818 Act supplie ...
, receiving a grant from the Church Building Commission towards its cost. The full cost of the church was £10,407 (), towards which the Commission paid £7,407. The architect was
Thomas Leverton Donaldson Thomas Leverton Donaldson (19 October 1795 – 1 August 1885) was a British architect, notable as a pioneer in architectural education, as a co-founder and President of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a winner of the RIBA Royal Gold ...
. Holy Trinity is a Grade II
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. After three years of construction, the church was consecrated on 6 June 1829 by the Bishop of London. The same building stands today, although having been considerably modified. In 1852 a portion of HTB's land was sold to the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in order for them to build the
London Oratory The London Oratory ("the Congregation of the Oratory of St Philip Neri in London") is a Catholic community of priests living under the rule of life established by its founder, Philip Neri (1515-1595). It is housed in an Oratory House, next to t ...
."Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary"
(London Oratory)
This created a long driveway from Brompton Road at the end of which HTB manages to gain relative tranquility. The most recent major modification was during the 1980s when the crypt was rebuilt to provide meeting rooms and the space for the bookshop. Also during this time, the pews were removed and replaced with chairs to allow greater flexibility in seating arrangements, which became imperative as take-up of the Alpha Course grew. The substantial growth of the Alpha Course in the last 18 years has seen this course become the main focus of HTB, with its recent history reflecting this.


List of vicars


St Paul's Onslow Square

St Paul's Church in
Onslow Square Onslow Square is a garden square in South Kensington, London, England. It is set back between the Old Brompton Road to the northwest and the Fulham Road to the southeast. To the north is South Kensington Underground station. To the south is ...
was opened in 1860. In the late 1970s, the parish of Holy Trinity Brompton merged with the neighbouring parish of St Paul's
Onslow Square Onslow Square is a garden square in South Kensington, London, England. It is set back between the Old Brompton Road to the northwest and the Fulham Road to the southeast. To the north is South Kensington Underground station. To the south is ...
. St Paul's was declared redundant. An attempt by the diocese to sell the building for private redevelopment was thwarted in the early 1980s when local residents joined with churchgoers to save the church. In the late 1980s, the Parochial Church Council requested that the redundancy be overturned which allowed curate Nicky Lee and his wife Sila to "plant" a congregation there as well as undertake some building structural maintenance work. At its peak in the 1990s, this congregation had grown to several hundred. In 1997, the congregation at St Paul's divided into three, with some going with curate Stuart Lees to plant a church in Fulham; others returning to Holy Trinity with Nicky and Sila Lee; and others forming the St Paul's Anglican Fellowship and remaining based at St Paul's with John Peters. This last group left in 2002 to plant into St Mary's, Bryanston Square. During 2007, after plans by HTB to rebuild the 1960s offices were withdrawn following difficulty in getting support from local residents, HTB decided to undertake some renovations and to resume services in the church. St Paul's launched 9:00 am and 6:00 pm services in September 2007 and followed with an 11AM service on 20 January 2008 and a 4 pm service on 28 September 2009. In December 2009 the upstairs balcony was recommissioned for worship, having previously been used for administrative offices (the office occupants having moved to HTB's nearby office building purchased in 2008).


St Augustine's Church

Services at
St Augustine's, Queen's Gate St Augustine's, Queen's Gate, is a Grade II* listed Anglican church in Queen's Gate, Brompton, London, England. The church was built in 1865, and the architect was William Butterfield. History In 1865 the curate of Holy Trinity, Brompton, the Rev ...
began to be administered from Holy Trinity Brompton following an invitation by the Bishop of Kensington in 2010, where Nicky Gumbel was made priest-in-charge. In March 2011, St Augustine's was formally merged into the parish of HTB.


Church plants

Since the 1980s, HTB has been involved in
planting churches Church planting is a term referring to the process (mostly in Protestant frameworks) that results in a new local Christian congregation being established. It should be distinguished from church development, where a new service, worship center or ...
. This has resulted in a large number of churches that can be linked back to HTB either as a result of being directly planted by the church (so called daughter churches), or by being the plants of churches planted by HTB (so called granddaughter churches). This web of churches form the
HTB network The HTB network consists of churches planted by Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) or by HTB plants themselves. As such, it is a network of Anglican churches within the Church of England and the Church in Wales The Church in Wales ( cy, Yr Eglwys y ...
.


Alpha and HTB

The Alpha course was founded by
clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...
at HTB who, over a period of twenty years, kept adapting the programme in accordance with feedback until in the early 1990s, when the Alpha course started gaining worldwide attention. As Alpha grew it became the main focus for HTB as it sought to support Alpha's spread and growth. Today, this involves the production of advertising material and course material such as videos, books and tapes for each Alpha session and leader training material. Alpha is now run as a separate enterprise with separate fundraising and accounting, but it remains closely tied to HTB, with most of Alpha's staff being accommodated in HTB's offices. The clergy of HTB also share Alpha duties such as overseeing Alpha conferences and training events in the UK and overseas. Since the mid-1990s, the Alpha course programme has remained largely unchanged allowing the energy of the church to develop other initiatives which fit with the Alpha course such as creating courses on marriage preparation, parenting teenagers, bereavement and recovering from divorce, as well as publishing new books. HTB itself runs Alpha courses three times a year, and with these attracting 300–400 guests during each course, they require all of the available space in the church buildings.


Pastoral care

In order to address the problem of how to give pastoral care to such a large congregation as well as provide a means for new people to become a part of the church, HTB uses the ''Pastorate'' model. Pastorates consist of 20–50 people who, through meeting at least once a fortnight, can form strong friendships and support each other in care as well as developing individual gifts and ministries. HTB has quite a transient congregation caused in part by its location in London, a city which itself has a transient population, in particular a large student population who only reside in London during their studies, and that HTB is able to attract; and also in part by the fact that the Alpha course brings in a number of people to HTB who are either visiting the home of Alpha or have completed the course and then quickly move on to other churches or ministries.


Services

HTB conducts ten services each Sunday across the four sites. The family services include items aimed at children. The formal services feature traditional Church of England liturgy and a professional choir. The informal services centre on a longer period of
contemporary worship Contemporary worship is a form of Christian worship that emerged within Western evangelical Protestantism in the 20th century. It was originally confined to the charismatic movement, but is now found in a wide range of churches, including many w ...
with a longer talk and close in a reflective prayer mood which extends beyond the end of the service. The 4:30pm and 6:30pm services at HTB Onslow Square church extend this informal nature further as most of the congregation sit on carpet, whilst some couches, cushions and bean bags are also provided. These services are sometimes conducted
in the round A theatre in the round, arena theatre or central staging is a space for theatre in which the audience surrounds the stage. Theatre-in-the-round was common in ancient theatre, particularly that of Greece and Rome, but was not widely explored ag ...
. Some services reuse the same talk and song list from a service earlier in the day.


Other activities

Another activity of HTB is its yearly church camp, named "Focus". This takes place over the course of a week in Somerley Estate, where typically 7,000 people attend and involve themselves in the many seminars, workshops and recreational activities. The size also attracts some prominent speakers to speak on issues affecting the church and society. Since 1985, HTB has been actively involved in a process called
church planting Church planting is a term referring to the process (mostly in Protestant frameworks) that results in a new local Christian congregation being established. It should be distinguished from church development, where a new service, worship center or ...
whereby struggling churches in London are boosted by scores – sometimes hundreds – of people committing to move from HTB to the identified church for at least a year. This also involves at least one member of HTB's clergy similarly moving to the new church to help lead worship, form pastorates and run local Alpha courses. Over the years, nine churches have been planted in this way, including St Gabriel's, Cricklewood, with some of these churches going on to make church plants of their own. HTB also has thriving children's, youth and student ministries. Other activities HTB undertakes are services twice a year involving the large HTB choir – at
Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
and
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
– and several free classical concerts that utilise the church's pipe organ, refurbished in 2004, as well as drawing on the talent of the nearby music colleges. In September 2005 HTB started providing the talks given at the Sunday services as free downloads from its website and through their iTunes, YouTube and SoundCloud account. These downloads, which HTB has termed ''HTB Podcasts'', have proved popular and, more recently, other talks specifically provided for the HTB Podcast community have also been offered, including answers to questions sent in by listeners. Each month the total download count from this catalogue of talks is over 40,000, with some talks making it into the top ten in the "Religion and Spirituality" section for iTunes. In 2011 HTB formed the William Wilberforce Trust to bring together various social action projects that were linked with HTB. These projects include work in deprived neighbourhoods, addressing homelessness and providing practical support for people with addictions. HTB is also home to: *
St Paul's Theological Centre St Paul's Theological Centre (SPTC) is a British centre for theological learning, based at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) in South Kensington, London. It is led by its principal, the Reverend Russell Winfield. SPTC runs a four-week Monday evening cou ...
* The Alpha Course


See also

*
List of Commissioners' churches in London A Commissioners' church is an Anglicanism, Anglican church in the United Kingdom built with money voted by Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament as a result of the Church Building Act 1818, and subsequent related Act of Parliament, Acts. S ...
* The Reverend
Nicky Gumbel Nicholas Glyn Paul Gumbel (born 1955), known as Nicky Gumbel, is an English Anglican priest and author in the evangelical and charismatic traditions. He is known as the developer of the Alpha Course, a basic introduction to Christianity supp ...
, Vicar * The Reverend Katherine Chow, Associate Vicar * The Reverend Martyn Layzell, previous Associate Vicar Previous Associate Vicar, the Reverend Nicky Lee continues as a senior member of staff, with continuing responsibility together with Mrs Sila Lee for the Marriage Course.


References


External links


HTB website
* Mystery Worshipper reports at the
Ship of Fools The ship of fools is an allegory, originating from Book VI of Plato's ''Republic'', about a ship with a dysfunctional crew. The allegory is intended to represent the problems of governance prevailing in a political system not based on expert kn ...
website
2005200720132015

HTB Sound Design – A Story of Excellent Sound

William Wilberforce Trust
{{Churches in Kensington and Chelsea Churches completed in 1829 19th-century Church of England church buildings Religious organizations established in 1829 Evangelicalism in the Church of England Brompton
Holy Trinity Brompton Holy Trinity Brompton with St Paul's, Onslow Square and St Augustine's, South Kensington, often referred to simply as HTB, is an Anglican church in London, England. The church consists of six sites: HTB Brompton Road, HTB Onslow Square (former ...
London, Holy Trinity Brompton Diocese of London 1829 establishments in England