Christ Church, Warminster

Christ Church is an Anglican church serving a parish on the southern side of Warminster, Wiltshire.

Services and style

The church is evangelical in tradition and the 9.30 family service on Sundays is lively, although the church welcomes people of all traditions, the 11am Sunday morning worship service is more reflective in style and spirituality.

History

The church was built in 1830 to serve what was then Warminster Common. Originally part of the Parish of St Denys (The Minster) Christ Church was opened in 1831. In 1871 the church was expanded with the addition of the chancel and vestry. In 1881 the ceiling of the worship area, which was becoming unstable, was replaced with the wooden beams and pillars that are still present in the building.

During the late 1960s an attempt was made to modernise the worship in the church, and a nave altar was built. This was a very controversial move and led, eventually, to a consistory court. The vicar, acting with the best intentions wanted to symbolically bring the worship of the church to a more central place in the church. However this move divided the church and a number of the congregation and those outside the congregation complained that there had been no consultation. Eventually a parishioner appealed to an ecclesiastical consistory court. The case was lost by the vicar and church wardens as the court found that insufficient consultation about the change had occurred. Although the altar was not removed, the affair caused a rift in the church and a number of people felt strongly enough to move to worship elsewhere.

In 2004 a major redevelopment of Christ Church began with the complete reordering on the worship space, the addition of a raised dais, the removal of the controversial nave altar and pews, this has created a modern and functional welcome / fellowship area in the lobby of the church building. The result is a crisp, attractive and very functional church building, with modern audio visual system as an aid to worship.

The second phase of the development project includes the utilisation of the mezzanine floor area above the welcome area of the church. Creating meeting rooms, and more functional space, this second part of the work was due to begin in 2011.

List of vicars

References

Christ Church Warminster Website [1] Accessed June 2008.

External links

• Christ Church Warminster Website
• 1901 Edition of Christ Church Parish Magazine