Services are held in English every Sunday at 10.30 a.m., as well as on special days such as Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, during Holy Week and on Easter Sunday. A Sunday Club for children is held during regular Sunday Services during the school term. Study sessions take place during Advent and Lent. A number of more specific events are also organised throughout the year, such as the garden teas on Saturday afternoons during the summer.
The Church is set in a beautiful garden, planned and laid out by a well-known botanist, a former Church Warden of Christ Church and Honorary Curator of the Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the City of Geneva, renowned for classifying tropical African flowering plants. The Church garden is organised following a taxonomic approach, mainly featuring plants of the family Rosaceae. In addition to its roses, the garden contains a number of other interesting and beautiful plants, shrubs and trees.
History
There has been organised Anglican worship in Lausanne since 1816. The first recorded service took place on 10 November 1816, in the Chapelle de la Mercerie (St Etienne), just below Lausanne Cathedral. In 1822, the Revd Isaac Kendal Cheesbrough began his ministry as the first permanent Chaplain, and remained in office for 35 years until his death in 1857. During this period, the place of worship changed from the Chapelle de la Mercerie to the newly constructed church at La Croix d’Ouchy (Temple des Jordils). This construction was paid for by William Haldimand, a member of the English Church.
The new church was shared with the official Vaud Protestant parish, an arrangement that remained in place for the next 39 years. The English Church held two services every Sunday, one at 11.30 a.m. and one at 3.30 p.m. The congregation was large enough that in 1864, the Church Council decided to investigate the possibility of building their own church.
George Edmund Street, a distinguished English architect famous for his Gothic revival style, designed the building. The first stone was laid on 19 June 1877 at the site just off the Avenue d’Ouchy. The building work was completed rapidly and the church inaugurated the following year on 4 July 1878. The church was consecrated nine years later on 6 June 1887. The building was then enlarged by the addition of the south aisle in 1898, bringing the seating capacity up to 500; heating was installed at the same time.
Architecture
The building itself is considered a fine example of the neo-Gothic architecture popular in Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria. The exterior is a mixture of Swiss and English church architectural styles of the period. The shape of the main roof with the bell turret is local in style; but the porch with its saddle-back roof is English, as is the bonding of the external stonework. The interior also is typically English. The asymmetrical design (more obvious before the addition of the south aisle); the vaulted ceiling and roof timbers; the rectangular chancel; the columns with capitals and cylindrical abacus; and the paired windows with oculus are all English in style. The stained-glass windows, many commemorative, were designed by Clayton & Bell of London.
A small one-manual organ constructed by E.F. Walcker of Ludwigsburg was installed at the time of the original construction. The Swiss firm of Adolphe and Gustave Tschanun enlarged the organ in 1924 resulting in a three-manual organ commanding 29 ranks of pipes in five divisions. This beautiful instrument is still in use today and was renovated in 1995 by the current Churchwarden Dr David Elliott, retaining its original pneumatic action.
In 1986, Christ Church was declared to be a listed building in the Canton de Vaud. In spite of this, the upkeep of the building as well as all the Ministry expenses depend entirely on donations, contributions and the work of its members.
An ecumenical outlook
After almost two centuries of Anglican worship in Lausanne, the Christ Church community is an established part of the religious life of the city. Ecumenical contacts are maintained and promoted, and the Anglican Church was a founder member of the Ecumenical Council of Christian Churches in the Canton of Vaud, (La Communauté des Eglises chrétiennes dans le canton de Vaud, CECCV) formed in 2002.
Christ Church is part of the Archdeaconry of Switzerland in the Diocese of Europe, the 44th Diocese of the Church of England formed in 1980 to encompass the whole of mainland Europe. The Diocesan Bishop is the Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe. There are other churches of the Anglican Communion in Europe, namely the Episcopal Church of the USA, the Spanish Episcopal Reformed Church and the Lusitanian Church (Portugal). Full Communion is enjoyed with the Old Catholic Church (Bonn Agreement) and Scandinavian Lutheran Churches (Porvoo Agreement).
Our mission statement is "to be a welcoming place of worship, sharing God's love with all".
Lausanne is the capital and largest city of the canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city, situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and facing the French town of Évian-les-Bains across the lake. Lausanne is located 62 kilometres northeast of Geneva, its nearest larger neighbour..
Christ Church Spitalfields is an Anglican church built between 1714 and 1729 to a design by Nicholas Hawksmoor. On Commercial Street in the East End and in today's Central London it is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, on its western border facing the City of London, it was one of the first of the so-called "Commissioners' Churches" built for the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches, which had been established by an Act of Parliament in 1711.
The Diocese in Europe is a diocese of the Church of England. It was originally formed in 1842 as the Diocese of Gibraltar. It is geographically the largest diocese of the Church of England and the largest diocese in the Anglican Communion, covering some one-sixth of the Earth's landmass, including Morocco, Europe, Turkey, Mongolia and the territory of the former Soviet Union.
The Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg is a Latin Catholic diocese in Switzerland, which is exempt.
St. John's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 61 Broad Street in the historic heart of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Now part of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey headquartered in Trenton, it was founded in 1706 by missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, London, England. The current building, consecrated in 1860, is in the neo-Gothic style, with a 126-foot Gothic style tower.
Christ Church is a parish of the Anglican Church in Thailand within the Diocese of Singapore. It has both English and Thai language congregations. There are about 400 church members, representing many different nationalities and denominational backgrounds. The liturgy is Anglican-Episcopal in its form, and the Gothic Revival style building can seat as many as 450 persons.
The Church of Christ the King belongs to Catholic Apostolic Church trustees; it is in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London. It adjoins Dr Williams's Library and is within sight of University College London. The church is used by the Anglican mission Euston Church for Sunday services and its English Chapel, at its east end, by Forward in Faith for weekday services. It has been a Grade I listed building since 10 June 1954, one of 129 such Christian buildings in London.
The Scots Kirk, Lausanne, is a protestant, presbyterian church situated in Lausanne, avenue de Rumine 24. It is part of the Church of Scotland's Presbytery of Europe and one of two congregations of the Church of Scotland in Switzerland, the other being the Scots Kirk in Geneva. Sunday services are in English.
Anglican interest in ecumenical dialogue can be traced back to the time of the Reformation and dialogues with both Orthodox and Lutheran churches in the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, with the rise of the Oxford Movement, there arose greater concern for reunion of the churches of "Catholic confession". This desire to work towards full communion with other denominations led to the development of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, approved by the Third Lambeth Conference of 1888. The four points were stipulated as the basis for church unity, "a basis on which approach may be by God's blessing made towards Home Reunion":
St. James' Episcopal Church, named for James the Greater, is a historic Episcopal church located in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The only Episcopal church in Manitowoc County, St. James' is a "broad church" parish in the Diocese of Fond du Lac. It is the oldest continually operating congregation in Manitowoc County, first meeting in 1841. and organizing in 1848. The current church building, an example of Gothic Revival architecture, was consecrated in 1902. The congregation is active in community service and social justice ministries.
The Diocese of Christ the King is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa in the southern part of Gauteng province, South Africa.
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, formerly known as Grace Cathedral, is the historic cathedral in the Diocese of Iowa. The cathedral is located on the bluff overlooking Downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. Completed in 1873, Trinity is one of the oldest cathedrals in the Episcopal Church in the United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 1983 the cathedral was included as a contributing property in the College Square Historic District, which is also listed on the National Register.
St Columba's-by-the-Castle is a congregation of the Scottish Episcopal Church in central Edinburgh, Scotland. The church is located close to Edinburgh Castle, on the south slope of Castle Hill, and is protected as a category B listed building.
Christ Church is an Anglican church in Wesham, a small town in the English county of Lancashire. It is an active parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn and the archdeaconry of Lancaster. It was built 1893–94 by Paley, Austin and Paley, and is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.
The Château d'Ouchy is a hotel built on the site of an old medieval castle in Lausanne, Switzerland by fr:Jean-Jacques Mercier between 1889 and 1893.
St Ursula's Church, Bern is an Anglican Episcopal church in Bern, Switzerland.
St Nicholas Church is in Windy Arbour Road, Whiston, Merseyside, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Liverpool. The church was built in 1864–68 and designed by G. E. Street in Early English style. Its tower was never completed because of a fear of subsidence. The stained glass in the church includes windows designed by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.
Glérolles Castle is situated in the municipality of Saint-Saphorin, canton of Vaud, Switzerland, on the northern shore of Lake Geneva. Its earliest elements date from a fortress built around 1150. The modern building serves as the headquarters for a vineyard of the same name, and as a venue which can be hired to host social events. It is a Swiss Cultural Property of Regional Significance.
Holy Trinity Church, Geneva, Switzerland, was completed in 1853. The church is located at rue du Mont-Blanc, between the Genève-Cornavin railway station and the famous hotels at the banks of Lake Geneva. The church is part of the Diocese in Europe of the Church of England and is also a Swiss monument of regional significance.
Emmanuel Episcopal Church, located in Geneva, Switzerland, is an English speaking Episcopal parish of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, and a member of the Anglican Communion. The church has previously been known as "The American Church", but this designation was abandoned in 1977 in the light of the decreasing American participation in the congregation. In December 1924 the church was established as a charitable foundation under Swiss law: La Fondation de la Chappelle d'Emmanuel.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
