Rawtenstall Methodist Chapel

Longholme Methodist Church in Rawtenstall has to be one of the grandest chapels in Lancashire, externally, at least. Its own website says little, but it warrants a Wikipedia page which dates it back to 1842.

Unlike older, parish churches, it is generally harder to date nonconformist chapels. This one in particular is built in a style not unlike a Greek temple from the centuries before Christ, or a Roman one from His time. By the 1840s, those pillars were unnecessary for such a building, and were just designed to add a certain panache to the frontage. They also bespeak the builders’ wealth and showcase the congregants’ social ambitions. If we wish to attribute purer motives, we might say that they desired to model this evangelical, nonconformist church upon the New Testament blueprint; the apostolic church of the classical world provided them with their model, rather than parish church’s more typical gothic medievalism. Readers may judge for themselves if the current people called Methodist who assemble beneath these great pillars are faithful to the original, but it certainly remains a challenge to us all. Worldly wisdom, heresy and lukewarmness assail every church in each age; from each may the Good Lord deliver us.