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Parish Church of St Mary The Virgin |  |
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Causeway, Horsham Sunday 8.00am Holy Eucharist
Weekdays Eucharist 8.30am
Morning Prayers (daily)
Parish Office Church
Centre, Causeway tel. +44(0)1403 253762 Vicar: Revd Guy Bridgewater Assistant Curates: Revd Jo Elvidge, Revd Michael West Welcome to St. Mary's 'The Household of God which is the pillar and support of the truth! (1 Timothy 3. 15)
Welcome to St. Mary's! This building in which we worship has been associated with the life and worship of the Horsham community for almost 800 years and it stands witness to the continuing faith and commitment of its parishioners through the centuries until the present day. The Parish is the whole town of Horsham and over the years it has provided other churches as centres of worship and Christian fellowship. Today there are five churches within what is now a Team Ministry, the latest church was built in 1990. You can read about the history of St. Mary's from the new illustrated Guide which is obtainable from the church bookstall or a shortened version by clicking here. Until 1987 the Parish consisted of five churches serviced by a Vicar and Assistant Curates. It then became a Team Ministry and today there is a Team Rector, four Team Vicars, and at St. Mary's the Revd Jo Elvidge as Assistant Curate and Revd. Michael West, as Honorary Assistant. At the heart of our parish administration is the Parish Office which is presided over by Lucy Forster as Secretary. Keith Farrin is our Verger. Apart from the church building our other centre of fellowship is the Barn located in the Causeway. To the East of the Church are two further centres of importance. The Church School caters for 200 children of primary age . Adjacent to that are the two blocks of retirement flats known as Saint Mary's House with a resident Warden. The Parochial Church Council (PCC) is the statutory governing body of the whole Parish and it represents all five churches. With special responsibility for the Parish Church we have the St. Mary's Church Committee which meets every other month. Mission "Go and make disciples-. (Matthew 28. 19) St. Mary's Church is committed to Mission both at home and abroad. Every year it gives in its annual budget a tenth of its income to Christian missionary work. It almost doubles this with special appeals. At the heart of the life of the Parish is the Missions Committee which seeks to forge links with the world-wide church and is charged with administering most of the Parish's outward giving. St. Mary's has its own Outreach Committee which seeks to strengthen the missionary life of our church and is responsible for some of the teaching courses studied by our home groups. St. Mary's also has a Pastoral Group which seeks to care for the sick and the housebound. It also offers the ministry of healing and counselling to anyone in need. The Parish has a Pastoral Link scheme. In every road in the parish there is at least one link person who assists in strengthening the pastoral heart of our church. These links keep in touch with their neighbours, welcome newcomers, and keep the clergy informed of any needs in their area. The Parish helps, by prayer and finance, almost twenty missionary organisations and maintains links with mission partners abroad. In May 1995 the Parish held a town Mission which was called "Come Alive". It lasted for ten days and its intention was to declare the good news of Jesus Christ to every home in the town. There are regular teaching courses available for all those who wish to know more about the Christian faith. Worship God is spirit,
and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth! Christians are called upon to worship God at all times, but especially to come together at special times as the family of God, the church.
The Church has a Loop System for the hard of hearing. There is a Crèche in the Church in Holy Trinity Chapel. Parents can take children in there during the service. Parents with very young children who wish to stay with them during the service may ask for a 'Happy Bag' which contains some interesting diversions! The Church is open daily for private prayer whenever a Church Watcher is in attendance. MUSIC is important in our worship at St. Mary's. Our Senior Organist and Choir-master is Jeremy Weaver. Church Groups "Go and make disciples'. (Matthew 28. 19) The Parish Church has a fairly large worshipping congregation each Sunday and the numbers can seem rather daunting to newcomers. For this reason it is important church members belong to smaller groups where they can relate well to each other. Every effort is made by the clergy and lay leaders to welcome new members of the congregation. Please make sure that you complete a "Welcome" card when you join us here. Central to the life of our church are the 'Home Groups '. There are a large number of these meeting every night of the week and some during the day time, and their purpose is to encourage all of us in the Christian faith and life. Their time is spent in bible study, discussion, prayer and fellowship, and they build each other up in love. You can learn about these from Lucy in the Parish Office. For those who are seeking faith or renewal there are special courses which are run regularly - Christian Basics, 'Saints Alive and 'Emmaus' courses. In addition there are regular courses of preparation for Confirmation and details of these can be obtained from the clergy. The Parish Church is committed to the ministry of Christian Healing and from time to time there are special services for this. The Laying-on of hands is available every Sunday during the 9.30 am Eucharist. There is a Prayer Net at the entrance to the Church, where prayers may be written on to a paper fish and tied to the cross, and the Prayer Group which meets at 1.00pm, on Tuesdays in St. Peter's Chapel will pray for each one. There are many other groups which meet in the weekly life of our church. The Parish Office is situated in the Barn in the Causeway and it is open from 9.15am - 12.45pm Monday to Friday. Young People "Young men and maidens, old men and children, let them praise the name of the Lord!' (Psalm 148. 12,13) We are committed to the encouragement of young people in the Christian faith and do all we can to provide for all their needs. The Crèche is for those up to 3 years and meets in the Holy Trinity Chapel in the Church every Sunday at 9.30am Parents are able bring their children in while the service is in progress. Games and toys are available. Other Young People Meet at 9.30am also
There is a church youth club
which meets weekly on Friday evenings and is called TGIF. It is for
the 13 + age group and it meets in the Barn at 7.30pm There are young people's House Groups. Details of these may be obtained from the Parish Office. The Friends of St. Mary's Church Horsham
The Friends of St. Mary's Church, Horsham, has been set up to help conserve and enrich our lovely Grade One listed Parish Church. St. Mary's Church in common with all parish churches, relies totally on voluntary subscriptions for maintenance and necessary renovation. There are no central church funds which could pay for such work. St. Mary's is Horsham's parish church and will remain in good condition only if the people of Horsham care for it and befriend it. We would welcome you to The Friends of St. Mary’s Church, Horsham, and if you would like to join there are forms at the back of the Church, or you can contact the Membership Secretary, John Dodds tel.+44 (0)1403 256203 or please e-mail the Parish Office . Membership costs 10GBP per annum per household. You will receive The Friends’ newsletter three times a year and enjoy special events organised by The Friends, as well as priority booking for certain other events associated with St. Mary’s. The Parish Church is the oldest existing building in Horsham. It has been associated with the life and worship of the community and in continuous use for nearly eight centuries. Its picturesque location at the end of the Causeway, the focal point of today's conservation area, links it with the town it serves, and the peal of 10 bells rung regularly from the tower can be heard throughout the surrounding area. Originally a Norman church occupied the spot and remains of this church are to be found in the tower, the west door and the north- west wall. A new church dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, was completed in about 1247. At the time the church was consecrated Horsham was a rapidly expanding market town and this very spacious building not only provided for the spiritual needs of the people and a focus for the community but reflected their civic pride and increasing prosperity. Over succeeding centuries townspeople have worked to maintain and enrich the church, and their tombs and memorials show how important this relationship has always been. Despite alterations and additions the Church has remained substantially the same since the early 13th century and is unusual for the period in having a uniform style of architecture known as Early English. A particular characteristic of the building is that the nave and chancel are of equal width, and, in the late 13th century, the roof with a continuous ridge was raised to its present height, involving some easily detectable changes to the tower. The Church largely escaped the worst desecration common during the upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries. As it stands today the exterior of the Church, despite some changes, would be easily recognisable to our forbears. The interior, however, has been altered more frequently to reflect fashion and need. In the 18th and early 19th centuries the church fabric became dilapidated and the building unstable. According to the Parish Magazine of June 1869 it had 'threatened to bury the worshippers in hideous ruin', despite various rescue measures adopted to make it secure. Photographs of 1864 show an overloaded and rather derelict church, filled with wooden galleries and high box pews - the renting of which had caused many bitter disputes. In one case, when the owner of a pew died with no heirs to take it over, the Vicar and one churchwarden (of which, unusually, there have always been three) immediately rented the pew out to another family. However, the following Sunday a member of the original family took her place in the pew: there was a great furore and the dispute became something of a public cause célèbre. In 1865 under the guidance of the architect, S. S. Teulon, a remarkable feat of engineering secured the structure, the galleries were taken down and the east window was rebuilt, financed, as the West Sussex Gazette of November 16th, 1865, explained by a "fund got together by the untiring exertion and perseverance of the ladies' committee". In addition a new south aisle was added to compensate for the loss of the galleries and the interior restored. Unfortunately, some of the stonework was not of lasting quality, hence the need for today's very urgent restoration. The churchyard containing 1,175 listed items, in which many familiar Horsham names are to be found, has long ceased to be used as a burial ground. The earliest is a brick tomb with Sussex marble slab, on the south side of the church, to Richard Dendy and Joan his wife who died in 1690 and 1693 respectively. Some of the slabs in the paths cover vaults where several members of a family are buried. In the past the churchyard was fenced in with a padlocked gate. The Church belongs to the Vicar, and is held by him in trust for service to the whole town. Since Roger of Wallingford, appointed in 1231, there have been 42 vicars of Horsham, some of whom have memorials in the Church. One of the best remembered was the Revd. John H. Hodgson who was Vicar from 1840 - 1883. He lived with his large family, in the present vicarage, built in 1840, the old one on the edge of the Churchyard having, even in 1724, been described as 'old and ruinous'. As a permanent memorial to his 44 years incumbency, the North Porch was renovated in 1884 "by his wishes and in grateful recollection of the complete and happy restoration of this church AD 1865 effected during his ministry. A plaque records his impressive list of achievements. That so much is known about the Church is due to the fact that there are very good written records still in existence. Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials dating from 1540 are to be found in the West Sussex Record Office at Chichester. The 17th century Churchwardens' Accounts dating from 1610 have some interesting entries concerning the varied duties, clerical and civil, of the churchwardens, which included upholding ecclesiastical law, overseeing the church fabric and administering poor relief. They frequently had to prosecute offenders such as adulterers. absentees from church and swearers - in 1646 John Carpenter was fined 12d. for 'swearinge' and John Chapman was Fined 5/- 'for being drunck on ye Lordes day'. Some of this revenue went towards small expenses, such as "keping the dogs out of ye Church" or 'watching in the Church'. Men working in the Church were often provided with beer and bread. Repairs and maintenance were an on-going expense caused by wear and tear, vandalism and costly Acts of God. In 1615 the steeple was struck by lightning and set on fire, the large bell damaged and a girl called Elizabeth Strode standing near the belfry door was killed as a result. Under the Elizabethan Poor Laws, culminating in the Act of 1601, the Parish was legally responsible for the poor. Although some of the revenue from fines went to fund outdoor poor relief, most of the money was raised by a poor rate, some records of which still exist. In 1665, at a meeting of the Vicar, Churchwardens, Overseers and Inhabitants of 30th July it was decided that "from 4th August all poore people ... in the poore book receiving relief had to wear on their right arm two letters HP in yellow and blue ... four inches long and one inch in breadth." If they didn't -- no relief. The history of the Church is one of continuity and change. The responsibility for maintaining this heritage, carefully and lovingly passed on to us, is as important today as at any time during the last 800 years. At the end of the 20th century, the life of the Church goes on for worship, to celebrate our joys and witness our sorrows, for civic functions, for music making. The Church is maintained to a high standard and memorials to past parishioners continue to enhance the building. Now, under the guidance of the Vicar and Churchwardens, vital restoration is being carried out, to ensure the future of the fabric for a long time to come. Jane Bowen © 1997
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