St Anselm's Church is a

Catholic 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 ...

church which is part of the

Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and Wales is a personal ordinariate in the Latin Church of the Catholic Church immediately exempt, being directly subject to the Holy See. It is within the territory of the Catholic B ...

Pembury Pembury is a large village in Kent, in the south east of England, with a population of 6,128 at the 2011 Census. It lies just to the north-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells. The village centre, including the village green and High Street area is a ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England. It was originally founded in the 1960s as a

chapel-of-ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ease is deliberately bu ...

before becoming its own quasi-parish within the

personal ordinariate A personal ordinariate for former Anglicans, shortened as personal ordinariate or Anglican ordinariate,"...the liturgies approved for the Anglican ordinariates..." "Bishop Stephen Lopes of the Anglican Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter..." ...

in 2011, following a conversion of a large number of disaffected

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

s in

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. ...

History

St Anselm's Church was originally constructed in 1964 as the hall/chapel for a new church that would be part of the Catholic Pembury and

Paddock Wood Paddock Wood is a town and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England, about southwest of Maidstone. At the 2001 Census it had a population of 8,263, falling marginally to 8,253 at the 2011 Census. Paddock Wood is a centre f ...

Mission. However, the church remained at

until 1978 when Pembury and Paddock Wood became a parish. The planned church in Pembury's presbytery was sold in 1978, leaving Pembury without a Catholic place of worship. A small chapel was added to the hall in 1980 to alleviate this, though it lost its certification as a registered place of worship. Until 2011, it was used as a chapel-of-ease for the Paddock Wood parish. In 2011, St Anselm's was granted the status of quasi-parish by the

Archbishop of Southwark The Archbishop of Southwark (''Br'' �sʌðɨk is the Ordinary (Catholic Church), Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark in England. As such he is the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of Southwark. The archdiocese has ...

, This came about because it had become a part of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham for Anglican converts, allowing former members of 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 Britain ...

to break away and join the Catholic church whilst retaining Anglican traditions in the liturgy. The majority of St Anselm's congregation are former Anglicans who had come from the Church of England's St Barnabas' Church, Royal Tunbridge Wells, led by their Anglican vicar who would become the priest of St Anselm's. For its first three years, the church had few sacred ornaments, relied on a temporary altar on wheels to conduct services, and shared its space with community groups. With funding from parishioners and neighbouring Catholic parishes, a permanent altar,

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The station ...

, and other church furnishings were installed with a

lychgate A lychgate, also spelled lichgate, lycugate, lyke-gate or as two separate words lych gate, (from Old English ''lic'', corpse), also ''wych gate'', is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style ch ...

built outside, allowing the church to be used solely for Christian worship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Anselm's Church, Pembury Personal ordinariates Roman Catholic churches in Kent Roman Catholic churches completed in 2011 Churches completed in 1964 21st-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom