St. James's Church, Ryde is a

proprietary chapel A proprietary chapel is a chapel that originally belonged to a private person, but with the intention that it would be open to the public, rather than restricted (as with private chapels in the stricter sense) to members of a family or household, o ...

located in

Ryde Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 23,999 according to the 2011 Census and an estimate of 24,847 in 2019. Its growth as a seaside resort came af ...

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

. Until 2020 it was part 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 Britai ...

, when it left to join the

Anglican Mission in England The Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) is an Anglican convocation affiliated to the Anglican Network in Europe that seeks to establish Anglican churches in England outside the Church of England. It seeks to support Anglican churches and individual ...

History

The church was built in 1827 on Lind Street, as only the second

building in

. It was commissioned by W. Hughes, with his brother Revd. Augustus Hewitt serving as the inaugural minister. Both brothers left in 1830, with Hughes being elected to Parliament as M.P. for

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. Revd. Richard Waldo Sibthorp, a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, purchased the chapel and ministered to its congregation until 1841. From then, it was passed on several times, before in 1903 it was transferred to a group of five trustees, which holds it to this day. Since 1904 it has been part of the

Church Society Church Society is a conservative, evangelical Anglican organisation and registered charity formed in 1950 by the merger of the Anglican Church Association (founded 1865) and National Church League (founded 1906 by amalgamation of two earlier bodi ...

group of churches.

Organ

The organ was built in 1911 by James Ivemey of Southampton. It was later replaced by an organ originally in a Methodist church on St. Peter's Street in Winchester. One of the few recorded organists was a certain 'Miss Watts' around 1921. A specification of the organ can be found on th
National Pipe Organ Register

Present Day

St James' Church continues to be highly active with services at 10:30am and 6:30pm each Sunday, as well as a range of youth groups and mid-week groups. It 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 A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

of the

and has passed resolutions to reject the ordination of women.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryde, St. James Church of England church buildings on the Isle of Wight Ryde Conservative evangelical Anglican churches in England