Heslington Church

Heslington in York seems to have been annexed by the city’s university. Quiet and semi-rural, not unlike Lancaster’s campus, it had a fine-looking Victorian church overlooking a green. Ahead of an appointment, I went inside, delighted to see a ‘Church Open’ sign by the door so late in the afternoon. I expected to see the usual nineteenth-century trimmings: dull stained glass, dark pews, pretend-medieval fonts and carved pulpit. Instead, I was greeted with modern furniture -modern in the sense of twentieth-century, rather than contemporary. It looked like it had all been re-kitted in the late sixties or early seventies, with excessive quantities of light wood pews (why would they choose pews rather than comfy armchairs?!).

The old Victorian chancel has been abandoned while a new altar in the nave has the light wood pews around it on three sides (like the old Hebrew Tabernacle, apparently). The font looked like it had been designed in a Soviet-era factory, the attempt of a metallic-looking dove hovering above it resembling a bomb dropping, or a missile about to meet its target.

Although it certainly made the visit more interesting, and I am not unknown to experience feelings of boredom upon entering Victorian parish buildings, I was not convinced by Heslington Church. It claims to be a Local Ecumenical Partnership between the Anglicans and Methodists, the disused chapel of the latter becoming the village hall. The problem with all that guff about ecumenism and trendy Seventies fabric and fittings is that the wider Church was already then in serious decline. Evangelical truth was less mainstream and unity between denominations was thought a worthier goal than maintaining doctrine. Just as the interior of Heslington struck me as modern though already dated, so the ecumenical movement with its unifying goals and spirit of cooperation now seems a largely twentieth-century dream; well intentioned, perhaps, though mainly unsuccessful and ultimately unable to stem the churches’ decline. It is like tearing up uncomfortable, dark old pews and replacing with equally uncomfortable benches made of a lighter shade of wood.