St Thomas's Church, Oakwood is an Anglican church in the Enfield Deanery of the

Diocese of London The Diocese of London forms part of the Church of England's Province of Canterbury in England. It lies directly north of the Thames. For centuries the diocese covered a vast tract and bordered the dioceses of Norwich and Lincoln to the north ...

. It is located in Prince George Avenue in the Oakwood area of the

London Borough of Enfield The London Borough of Enfield () is a London boroughs, London borough in North London. It borders the London boroughs of London Borough of Barnet, Barnet to the west, London Borough of Haringey, Haringey to the south, and London Borough of Walt ...

, England.

History

St Thomas's is a modern Anglican church established in the 1930s as the suburb of Oakwood grew with the extension of the Piccadilly underground line to

Cockfosters Cockfosters is a suburb of north London to the east of Chipping Barnet, lying partly in the London Borough of Enfield and partly in the London Borough of Barnet. Before 1965, it was in the counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. Origins and ...

. Building stopped with the outbreak of the Second World War, and the church was not finished until the 1950s.St Thomas's Church, Oakwood
Geograph Britain. The architect was

Romilly Craze Romilly Bernard Craze (1892–1974) was an English architect.A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. James Stevens Curl. Oxford University Press. 2006. p.209 Life He was the son of George Henry Craze and his wife Louisa Mary Web ...

. Later a parish hall was added, and a distinctive tall green spire. There is a guide hut on the grounds across the car park from the main building. Late in 2010 the spire was found to be unsafe and removed, however this was replaced at the beginning of 2012.

Present day

The church holds weekly services on Sundays. St Thomas's is within the

Conservative Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exper ...

tradition of the Church of England. As a parish that supports complementary gender roles, it receives

alternative episcopal oversight A provincial episcopal visitor (PEV), popularly known as a flying bishop, is a Church of England bishop assigned to minister to many of the clergy, laity and parishes who on grounds of theological conviction, "are unable to receive the ministry of ...

from the

Bishop of Maidstone The Bishop of Maidstone is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Canterbury, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after the county town of Maidstone in Kent. Canterbury suff ...

(currently

Rod Thomas Rod Thomas (born 11 January 1947) is a Welsh former professional footballer who represented Wales at International level. During his career Thomas played for Gloucester City, Swindon Town, Derby County, Cardiff City, Gloucester for a second ...

). From May 2017 to 2018, St. Thomas' Oakwood was in

interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin '' ...

; this followed the move of the previous vicar, Christopher Hobbs (1997-2017), to St Andrew's Church, Cheadle Hulme. On 16 April 2018, the next vicar, Rich Alldritt, was inducted at the church. The current musical director is David Reavley.

References

External links

St Thomas's Church Website
Oakwood Diocese of London Evangelical Anglicanism Oakwood {{London-church-stub