St Philip & St James,

Leckhampton Leckhampton is a Gloucestershire village and a district in south Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The area is in the civil parish of Leckhampton with Warden Hill and is part of the district of Cheltenham. The population of the civil pari ...

is a

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 or ...

in south

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

, in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

county of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

. Part of the

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 t ...

Diocese of Gloucester, the

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 * Chri ...

has been a centre for worship for more than 150 years and has a present congregational roll of over 200.

History

On 1 May 1840 the church of St Philip was

consecrate Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

d as a daughter church of St Peter's and a

priest in charge A priest in charge or priest-in-charge (previously also curate-in-charge) in the Church of England is a priest in charge of a parish who is not its incumbent. Such priests are not legally responsible for the churches and glebe, but simply hold a ...

was approved. In 1869, St Philip's was granted separate parish status, and the first

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

was appointed in May that year. Ten years later, the church was found to be too small for the expanding parish and the present

of St Philip & St James was built around the existing one by partly rebuilding and extending it. This work took three years. In May 1882 the present building was consecrated by the

Bishop of Gloucester The Bishop of Gloucester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Gloucester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the County of Gloucestershire and part of the County of Worcestershire. The see's centre of governan ...

, but the building had no

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

- the proposed one had been found to be beyond the bearing capacity of the foundations. In 1903 the saddleback

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specific ...

was built in place of the spire and dedicated. The church is in the Victorian Gothic style, with a fine carved stone reredos in the chancel and a mural of the supper at Emmaus in the side chapel. Until their removal in 2020, the pews in the nave and aisles had carved end panels, some of which had been ingeniously incorporated into a new vestry at the back of the church. There is a movable nave altar on a dais, though the high altar is still in occasional use. The font was recently moved to the centre of the back of the church, having spent some years in the north-west corner. In 1963 a

columbarium A columbarium (; pl. columbaria) is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns, holding cremated remains of the deceased. The term can also mean the nesting boxes of pigeons. The term comes from the Latin "''colu ...

was built in the

crypt A crypt (from Latin '' crypta'' " vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a c ...

of St Philip & St James where ashes of the departed can rest, the first of its kind in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. By 1982 the parish of St Philip & St James had incorporated that of the former church of St James, Suffolk Square (at first used as a parish hall, but now a pizza restaurant). It now forms part of the South Cheltenham Team of churches whose Rector is also vicar of one of the churches in the team. In 2018, the church received permission to modernise its interior, removing the pews and converting the nave into a multi-use space while leaving the chancel and high altar in their historic configuration.Report in local business news
/ref> Construction work began in January 2020.

Church community

Worship at St Philip & St James is a mixture of formal and less formal styles. There is a pipe organ and a robed adult choir, occasionally supplemented by a music group with mostly acoustic instruments. The preaching mainly reflects a moderate liberal tradition. The current Vicar is the Revd Canon Nick Davies, who took up his post in 2012.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Philip and Saint James Church, Leckhampton Churches in Cheltenham Leckhampton Saint Philip Leckhampton Saint Philip Leckhampton Saint Philip Leckhampton