St Nicholas' Church, Durham

St Nicholas' Church, Durham
St Nicholas' Church, Durham
	St Nic's
	The church viewed from the marketplace
	54°46′39″N1°34′31″W / 54.77750°N 1.57528°W Coordinates: 54°46′39″N1°34′31″W / 54.77750°N 1.57528°W
Location	Durham, County Durham
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Open Evangelical
Website	www.stnics.org.uk
History
Status	Civic church
Dedication	Saint Nicholas
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II
Architect(s)	James Pigott Pritchett
Completed	1858
Administration
Parish	St Nicholas Durham
Deanery	Deanery of Durham
Archdeaconry	Archdeaconry of Durham
Diocese	Diocese of Durham
Province	Province of York
Clergy
Vicar(s)	The Revd Arun Arora
NSM(s)	The Revd Prof Peter Johnson ; The Revd Colin Patterson ; The Revd David V. Day
Minister(s)	The Revd Lindsey Goodhew
Laity
Reader(s)	Jamie Harrison ; Andrew Trigger

Last updated July 28, 2019

St Nicholas' Church, commonly known as St Nic's, is a Church of England place of worship located on Durham marketplace and is the city's civic church. The church stands in the open evangelical tradition of the Church of England.

The Church of England is the established church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior cleric, although the monarch is the supreme governor. The Church of England is also the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the third century, and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury.

Durham is a historic city and the county town of County Durham in North East England. The city lies on the River Wear, to the west of Sunderland, south of Newcastle upon Tyne and to the north of Darlington. Founded over the final resting place of St Cuthbert, its Norman cathedral became a centre of pilgrimage in medieval England. The cathedral and adjacent 11th-century castle were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. The castle has been the home of Durham University since 1832. HM Prison Durham is also located close to the city centre. City of Durham is the name of the civil parish.

History

The current building dates to 1858, and was designed by Darlington architect J. Pritchett. The building was described by the Illustrated London News at the time as "the most beautiful specimen of church architecture in the north of England". It is a Grade II listed building.^[1]

Darlington is a large market town in County Durham, in North East England. With a population of 105,564 in 2011, the town lies on the River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees. The town is administered as part of the Borough of Darlington. The town owes much of its development to the influence of local Quaker families in the Georgian and Victorian era, and who provided much of the finance and vision in creating the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the world's first steam locomotive powered, permanent passenger railway. The town is often colloquially referred to as 'Darlo'.

A listed building, or listed structure, is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, Cadw in Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency in Northern Ireland.

This building replaced one dating from the early 12th century, whose walls formed part of the city walls and abutted the ancient Clayport Gate (demolished 1791) on one side. Almost all that remains of this church is its font, dating from 1700, and its five bells, dating from 1687 and therefore the oldest ring of bells in the diocese. Though the bells were not rung from the 1970s onwards due to fears for the safety of the tower, ringing resumed in 2000 and the 17th-century bells, along with a sixth added in 1889, are now rung frequently.

George Carey, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was vicar of St Nicholas' from 1975 to 1982. During that time he led a project in which the pews and the majority of the Victorian interior features of the church were removed to allow the church to be used more flexibly for worship and community activities. Carey's book The Church in the Marketplace describes the process and its impact on the life of the parish.^[2]

George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton, is a retired Anglican bishop who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, having previously been the Bishop of Bath and Wells. During his time as archbishop the Church of England ordained its first women priests and the debate over attitudes to homosexuality became more prominent, especially at the 1998 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justin Welby, who was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013. Welby is the 105th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to Augustine of Canterbury, the "Apostle to the English", sent from Rome in the year 597. Welby succeeded Rowan Williams.

Victorian architecture is a series of architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. Victorian refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the styles known as Victorian were used in construction. However, many elements of what is typically termed "Victorian" architecture did not become popular until later in Victoria's reign. The styles often included interpretations and eclectic revivals of historic styles. The name represents the British and French custom of naming architectural styles for a reigning monarch. Within this naming and classification scheme, it followed Georgian architecture and later Regency architecture, and was succeeded by Edwardian architecture.

Parish and population

The parish is small (covering only the area around the Market Place, Claypath and The Sands) and is bounded by the parishes of Durham's three other ancient city churches - St Giles', St Oswald's and St Margaret's. Historically the parish was densely populated; however, slum clearance in the 1920s (as well as commercial development of previously residential areas) greatly reduced the population of the parish, and though more recent building has increased this a little, the church draws the majority of its congregation from outside its own parish. It has a large student population, and is classified by the Diocese of Durham as its own locality, meaning that its mission is recognised as distinctly different from those of other city centre churches. The church has a long tradition of evangelicalism, and its patronage has been held by the Church Pastoral Aid Society since the mid-19th century.

St. Giles Church is a grade I listed parish church in Gilesgate, Durham, England.

St Oswald's Church is a Church of England parish church in Durham, County Durham. The church is a grade II* listed building and it dates from the 12th century.

Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. The clearance of the slum destroys low income homes as well as illegal squatting sites, displacing inhabitants into different housing areas with the intent of breaking up continuous zones of poverty.

Outreach

One notable feature of the reordered church is the Gateway World Shop, which occupies the south-east corner of the church, having its own outside entrance, and sells Fair trade goods. The shop reflects the church's long involvement with the fair trade movement; Richard Adams, founder of Traidcraft, was a member of the church.

Fair trade is an institutional arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions. Members of the fair trade movement advocate the payment of higher prices to exporters, as well as improved social and environmental standards. The movement focuses in particular on commodities, or products which are typically exported from developing countries to developed countries, but also consumed in domestic markets most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, wine, sugar, fresh fruit, chocolate, flowers and gold. The movement seeks to promote greater equity in international trading partnerships through dialogue, transparency, and respect. It promotes sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers in developing countries. Fair trade is grounded in three core beliefs; first, producers have the power to express unity with consumers. Secondly, the world trade practices that currently exist promote the unequal distribution of wealth between nations. Lastly, buying products from producers in developing countries at a fair price is a more efficient way of promoting sustainable development than traditional charity and aid.

Traidcraft is a UK-based Fairtrade organisation, established in 1979. The organisation has two components: a public limited company called Traidcraft plc, which sells fairly traded products in the United Kingdom; and a development charity called Traidcraft Exchange that works with poor producers in Africa and Asia.

St Nics has a long history of supporting overseas mission. The first bishop of Uganda, Alfred Tucker, left his curacy at St Nics to bring Christianity to Uganda. This support is currently expressed by the church's financial support of the Church Mission Society, South American Missionary Society, the Bible Society, Spanish Outreach Ministries and the diocese of Lesotho.

Notable clergy

Arun Arora became vicar in 2017, having previously been Director of Communications for the Church of England since 2012.
Pete Broadbent, later Bishop of Willesden, served his curacy here in the late 1970s.
George Carey, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was vicar of St Nicholas' from 1975 to 1982.
David V. Day, former Principal of St John's College, Durham, was a non-stipendiary minister from 1999 to 2007, and remains part of the ministry team as of 2019.
Alistair Magowan, later Bishop of Ludlow, was curate here 1984-9.
George Marchant, was vicar of St Nicholas' from 1954 to 1974.
Maeve Sherlock, Baroness Sherlock, became curate here in 2018.
Alfred Tucker, later Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, served his curacy here in the 1880s.
John Wenham, Biblical scholar, was vicar 1948-1953.
Frank White, later Bishop of Brixworth, served his curacy here in the 1980s.

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References

↑ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1310684)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 30 October 2008.
↑ Carey, George. The Church in the Market Place. ISBN 0-8192-1562-7.

External links

St Nicholas' Church, Durham
Gateway World Shop at St. Nicholas
Review of Christmas Day 2007 service by the Ship of Fools' Mystery Worshipper

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[1] Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1310684)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 30 October 2008.

[2] Carey, George. The Church in the Market Place. ISBN 0-8192-1562-7.