Churches declare themselves differently in succeeding generations. Our present generation is having to declare where it stands on racism and what it means to be inclusive. It is also invited to present itself in its reaction to a 21st century plague and to the international implications of Brexit. A less conspicuous but none the less significant aspect is the imagination it brings to the creative process of church design and church building. A compelling figure in this context is the church architect Robert Potter.
Potter, born in 1909, died in 2010, lived at a time after WW2 when churches were being repaired and people such as Gilbert Cope and J.G. Davies were stimulating thought about church design. Potter’s work was highlighted in Peter Hammond’s book ‘Liturgy and Architecture’. Three of his churches show how a style of building can help shape the worship that goes on inside the finished construction. St Francis, Salisbury was started in 1938. The Ascension, Crownhill, Plymouth and St George’s Oakdale, Poole came later. Each is a ground-breaking venture, an opportunity for Christians of various outlooks to show what they are made of when it comes to fresh thinking.
Here are three websites worth visiting. Perhaps the Salisbury church is the most accessible. It has the benefit of a well-conceived film showing volunteers in the year before WW2 digging trenches. No steel -capped boots, no high-vis clothing, no hard hats; the eager young men who volunteered were likely to be in uniform within days. Work continued, with next to no machinery. It was a matter of wooden scaffolding, hods and wheel-barrows with modern equipment just beginning to make its mark as the church neared completion in 1940.
Nowadays the church serves an area of new dwelling-houses. It is a building with a lofty interior and light streaming through elongated windows. If , as they say, every building makes a statement, this building declares itself as belonging to the contemporary world. Its vicar, Jean de Garis, has a congregation of 250 on a Sunday with a traditional service at 9.30 and a New Wine style service later. The church offers Alpha courses and supports the Mission Aviation Fellowship. Its magazine features a churchwarden who served in the Royal Navy as, amongst other things, a test pilot.
Robert Potter did not confine his activities to new church buildings. He worked on established buildings like All Souls, Langham Place, where during the rectorship of Michael Baughen (later Bishop of Chester) he went underground and supervised the construction of a hall beneath this notable West End church.
Twenty-first century interest in church building has been more concerned with re-ordering existing interiors than with designing new churches. There are good examples of this to be seen. We shall undoubtedly see more when we are clear of lockdown.
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