|
Lewes Free Presbyterian Church, based in the Jireh Chapel, is one of seven Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster places of worship in England. The Jireh Chapel is a former Calvinistic Independent chapel in the Cliffe area of Lewes, the county town of East Sussex and the main town in the local government district of Lewes. It is more than 200 years old and has been designated a Grade I Listed building. ==History== The ancient market town of Lewes has a well-established history of Protestant Nonconformism. Many chapels were established in the 18th and 19th centuries in the town itself and in its suburbs of Southover and Cliffe. One such place of worship was the Jireh chapel. In or around 1805 a dispute arose between Jenkin Jenkins, the minister at Cliffe's Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion chapel, and its congregation. He was dismissed by the Countess's Trustees and arranged for a new chapel to be built for him nearby. (The Countess of Huntingdon chapel, which opened in 1775, survived until the 1880s but has been demolished.) Jireh Chapel was placed in the hands of trustees about 1807. Prior to that time it had been the personal property of Jenkin Jenkins. The Trust Deed states that the Chapel is a place of Christian worship to be "frequented and enjoyed by a congregation of Protestant Dissenters of the Calvinistic persuasion professing ..". A list of certain Articles of Faith, extracted from the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, follows. The Article on Infant baptism (Article 27) is included in the Trust Deed of the Chapel. Jenkins enlisted William Huntington to open the church, which was completed in 1805.〔 Huntington, originally from Cranbrook in Kent, was an orthodox but controversial Calvinist preacher who ministered at Providence Chapel, Grays Inn Lane, London. Known by various pseudonyms, he became very popular in southeast England in the early 19th century, and helped to found several Calvinist chapels. An example of his eccentricity was his reference to Jenkins as "W.A." (the "Welsh Ambassador") and himself as "S.S." ("Sinner Saved"); the "W.A." epithet featured on a tablet below the chapel's gabled roof which commemorated its opening. It reads .〔 Huntington died in 1813 and was buried in a tomb in the small graveyard behind the chapel.〔〔 The chapel proved popular, and was extended in 1826 to give a capacity of about 1,000.〔〔〔 The interior was almost entirely wooden, with box-pews and galleries.〔 A Sunday school was built in the grounds in 1874; it was linked to the chapel's north wall by a columned porch surmounted by a pediment.〔 The chapel's use declined in the 20th century,〔 and the Loyal Orange Institution of England, Southdowns Lodge used it for their annual commemorative service on the Sunday prior to November 5. Many members of the various Bonfire Societies attended this annual "Bonfire" service. The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster denomination was founded by Ian Paisley on 17 March 1951 in Crossgar, a village in County Down, Northern Ireland. It quickly became established across Northern Ireland, where dozens of churches were founded, and some congregations developed in the rest of Great Britain as well. Scotland and Wales each have several, and in there are seven in England.〔 The Lewes congregation established itself in the Jireh chapel, which is therefore now in regular use again. Lewes has a strong history of non-conformism and has one of the few Orange lodges in the South of England. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lewes Free Presbyterian Church」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|