Chirk's Church

St Mary’s at Chirk in Clwyd, Wales, I was pleased to find open when I called in the autumn. An establishment of some vintage, I found it rather peculiar on three counts, the first being the number of monuments to the dead.

The second is that there does not appear to have a chancel, that special section of the church reserved for the clergy which contains the altar (or communion table as it ought to be known). This means that there is no division or barrier between the congregation and vicar, which would have been scandalous to medieval folk but more acceptable to we protestants for whom scripture quite clearly teaches the priesthood of all believers.  

The third peculiarity is the survival of the gallery, an upstairs overflow which the Victorians tended to dismantle as they sought to ‘re-medievalise’ their churches, perhaps considering it too much like a theatre. The Georgians had sought to cram them in on whatever level they could. Perhaps the Victorians of Chirk were too occupied with their lack of chancel to bother with the cheap seats up above.

Chirk’s church seeks to admit as many as possible, while bringing the communion service in the very midst of the people, not obscuring it by walls and screens.

All rather acceptable to me.