Saint Vedast-alias-Foster

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Thu, 16/05/2024 - 00:00

The Church of Saint Vedast-alias-Foster must be the most strangely named of the London City Churches. Vedast is likely a corruption of Vaast, the name of a French or Flemish saint, while Foster is thought to be another Anglicisation of the word. Thus, it is really St Vaast’s Church, but two alternative words are given instead. All very confusing and not terribly important.

Previously, I had twice failed to enter this church on account of its daily 3pm closure. Even on last month’s successful visit, I was politely asked to leave on account of that third hour’s arrival. Its insides, contrary to its daft-sounding name, were rather dignified. Rebuilt twice, on account of the Great Fire and Göring's bombs, it feels like a gigantic chancel, the seating arranged ‘collegiate style’, with the pews facing each other, as though every congregant were in the choir. I rather liked it, though it clearly was not designed for the enjoyment of decent sermons, seeing as half the congregation would have to twist their necks to see the preacher.

The Cambridge online dictionary defines 'alias' as:

…used when giving the name that a person is generally known by, after giving their real name.

In common usage, the word generally hints at some duplicity, as though one were hiding a real identity for the purpose of criminal enterprise. When I served as a Justice of the Peace and had to read various defendants’ criminal records, the list of given aliases would sometimes run to a dozen or more. Our chapel goes by a number of names: Martin Top Chapel, Salem Chapel, Salem Congregational Chapel. It was originally The Independent Chapel of Protestant Dissenters which meets at Newby Hill, but this is quite a mouthful.

When Graceless enters the wicket gate in John Bunyan's Pilgrim’s Progress, Good Will tells him:

"We refuse none who come and knock. Therefore, come with me, and I will teach you that which you need most to know. But first I will give you a new name. You shall no longer be called Graceless — but CHRISTIAN, for you are now a pilgrim on the road to the Celestial Land.”

The same speaks in Revelation 2:17:

“To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”