MY FRIENDS at Chesham URC have told me that they have marked the jubilee of their denomination.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the URC a special service was held at Chesham URC, on Sunday October 2, 2022, followed by lunch and a history quiz.

This is the story of why it happened...

Origins of the United Reformed Church

The origins of the URC go back to the 17th century.

After King Charles II came to the throne in 1660, Parliament started to reverse the changes that Oliver Cromwell had made to the Church of England, for example, bishops, choirs and robes which had been abolished were re-introduced.

In 1662, Parliament enacted the Act of Uniformity, when the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles of the Church of England became law.

Those ministers, mainly Puritans, who refused to go along with these were expelled from the Anglican Church.

This was called the Great Ejection. However, many of these ministers were very popular and when they left they formed new independent congregations with those who followed them.

These new groups were known as Presbyterians, Independents or Congregationalists, which were all terms used at different times for the same church in Chesham.

These similar traditions mainly came together in 1972 as the United Reformed Church (URC).

In 2012, the 350th anniversary of the Great Ejection of 1662, was marked by an act of reconciliation between the United Reformed Church and the Church of England at Westminster Abbey.

These people who could not conform to the rules of the Church of England were called non-conformists.

In 1689, the Toleration Act allowed for non-conformists to meet, so long as they registered their place of worship. These registrations are helpful to establish the histories of religious groups, often giving their names and locations.

This Act allowed non-conformists to build their own places of worship, which were usually called meeting houses or chapels.

Origins in Chesham

Sometime about 1700 a separate Presbyterian congregation of about ten families began in Chesham.

In 1712, it was led by Rev Isaac Robinson, who registered his house as a meeting place in 1713.

In 1723, Rev William King came to Chesham following Isaac Robinson’s death.

From 1725 to 1740 William King ran a boarding school for children of non-conformist families, and was the first school in Chesham.

In 1724, a chapel was built and it was registered as a place of worship in 1725.

It was known as Chesham High Street Independent Chapel, and there has been a church on the site on the Broadway ever since.

Rev Thomas Spooner

One notable minister, Rev Thomas Spooner, was pastor from 1748. He was a scholar of biblical Hebrew, and in 1771 he published “A Decade of Sermons Preached in Chesham in Buckinghamshire.

He was a friend of Rev John Wesley who visited him in Chesham in 1769, and then again through the 1770s.

Wesley would usually ride from High Wycombe, and then stay with the Rev Thomas Spooner, at High House, (now 77) High Street, Chesham and preach at his chapel, before going onto London, because the Methodist meeting house was too small.

When Spooner died in 1779 he left some land at the back of the chapel for a graveyard, and the burial register starts that year.

Meeting House

Chesham Independent Chapel was extended in 1820, and registered for weddings in 1837.

In the 1830s Chesham joined the new Congregational Union of England and Wales, and became known as Chesham Congregational church. The chapel was extended in 1863, and repaired in 1874, but in the 1880s was felt to be no longer fit for purpose.

In 1885 it was pulled down, and a foundation stone for a new building was laid on June 24, 1885.

The stone reads “Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone”. The new chapel built with local brick and knapped flint opened on April 19, 1886.

Branches

From 1817 the church worked with the Baptists to form a congregation at Bellingdon, and from 1833 they worked with the Baptists to start a congregation at Chartridge.

In 1856 the church established Asheridge Congregational Mission, where a chapel was built in 1890, which closed down in 1948.

In 1936 they opened the Friendship Hall off Lyndhurst Road on the new Pond Park housing estate of Chesham (see BFP Nostalgia 29th February 29, 2020).

This started as Pond Park Congregational Church, which became Hivings Free Church, and is now called Hope Church.

United Reformed Church (URC)

On October 5, 1972 the United Reformed Church was formed as a new Christian denomination from the amalgamation of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, and the Presbyterian Church of England.

Since then, Chesham Congregational Church, has been called Chesham United Reformed Church (URC).

Reformed is a term which refers to church traditions which stem from the Reformation.

In 1981 the United Reformed Church denomination was further joined by the Churches of Christ, and in 2000 by the Congregational Union of Scotland. The URC has churches throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

The URC in South Bucks

In south Bucks there are also United Reformed Churches at Beaconsfield, Burnham, Cores End (near Bourne End), Gerrards Cross, High Wycombe, Holtspur and Marlow.

As well as being an ecumenical movement itself, about a third of URC churches are in further ecumenical partnerships with other denominations.

Locally, Amersham Free Church and Wendover Free Church are both Baptist and URC.

In 1977, the Methodist and URC churches in Chalfont St Giles combined to form Deansway United Church. In 2003, Fairford Leys Church in Aylesbury was created as a new ecumenical church established jointly by the URC, Methodist and Anglican denominations.

Chesham URC today

In 2013 Chesham URC church building was re-opened after redevelopment and modernisation, which included a new kitchen, and the pews replaced by comfortable seats.

Recently numbers have increased with former members of Trinity Baptist church in Chesham, who joined after their congregation closed.

Services at Chesham URC are held every Sunday at 10.45am. All are welcome.