For my 'Christianity in Britain' class today we went to the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Field, one of the first churches built expressly for Anglican worship, as opposed to being appropriated and modified from Roman Catholic roots. It is located on Trafalgar Square and is currently in the final phases of renovation.
Many elements of the Church of England's style of worship are evident in the design of the building. First, the building has excellent acoustics due to Anglicans' emphasis on sermons and 'the word'. Second, there are 'box seats' of sorts, balcony-level seats that face inwards where nobles paid annual rent for their seats. The main body of the church was for the plebiscite masses and had no pews. There is also the Monarch's Box and the Admiralty's Box, special seats for those two entities when they attend the church.
The church is very plain: white with gold trim. The trim was a sort of low-key version of the kind in St. Paul's.
Today the church has a strong social outreach program which has its origins in WWI. British soldiers would leave for and return from the battlefront from Charing Cross station in Trafalgar Square, and so St. Martin's ministered to the soldiers while they were waiting for trains.
The church is also used almost daily as a concert hall for classical music, as a way to raise money for its £2m in annual maintenance costs. It also operates a restaurant on the premises.
2 comments:
Very interesting to hear about the present day use. Of course, orginally I'm sure they actually were located in a field!
I was intrigued about tis relationship with the famous Ensemble and Chorus under the same name, and I found this. Thanks for enriching us culturally, Patrick!
"The Academy of St Martin in the Fields was formed in 1958 as a small, conductorless chamber ensemble. Led by Sir Neville Marriner and attracting some of the finest players in London, the orchestra at first concentrated on repertoire from the Baroque era, developing a style of performance that launched the 1960’s Baroque revival. The Academy was so named after the various concert-giving societies or ‘Academies’ that had flourished in 18th century London and the famous church in which it gave its first concert on 13 November 1959."
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