Holy Trinity Brompton

Holy Trinity, Brompton
Brompton, Middlesex
Status:	parish church
Holy Trinity Brompton, Brompton Road
	Church of England
	Diocese of London
Location
Grid reference:	TQ27137924
Location:	51°29’52"N, 0°10’12"W
History
	Gothic Revival
Information
Website:	www.htb.org/

Holy Trinity Brompton with St Paul's, Onslow Square and St Augustine's, South Kensington, often referred to simply as HTB, is church of the [Church of England]] in the Diocese of London the main church of which stands on Brompton Road in [Brompton, Middlesex|Brompton]] by Kennington in the heart of the upmarket metropolitan townscape of Middlesex.

The church overall lconsists of six sites:

• HTB Brompton Road
• HTB Onslow Square (formerly St Paul's, Onslow Square)
• HTB Queen's Gate (formerly St Augustine's, South Kensington)
• HTB Courtfield Gardens (formerly St Jude's Church, Kensington – located in the parish of St Mary of the Boltons but part of HTB)
• HTB St. Francis Dalgarno Way and
• St Luke's Earls Court

Holy Tinity Brompton is where the Alpha Course was first developed and it is one of the most influential churches in the Church of England. It is also the headquaters of The St Paul's Theological Centre.

The church buildings accommodate Alpha, other courses, conferences and meetings during the week and ten services each Sunday. With total Sunday service attendance at around 4,500 people and the Alpha course attracting several hundred guests during the week, HTB oversees a diverse range of activities. HTB's vision statement is to "play our part in the evangelisation of the nations, the revitalisation of the church and the transformation of society."

History

Entrance driveway

Holy Trinity

Before the construction of Holy Trinity Brompton, the present site was a part of the large parish of Kensington which was served only by the nearby St Mary Abbots church. In the early 1820s the area was in the midst of a substantial population increase so a decision was taken to purchase land and construct a new church.

The church was a Commissioners' church, receiving a grant from the Church Building Commission towards its cost. The full cost of the church was £10,407, towards which the Commission paid £7,407, and the architect was Thomas Leverton Donaldson. Holy Trinity is a Grade II listed building. After three years of construction the church was consecrated on 6 June 1829 by the Bishop of London.

The same building stands today, although having been considerably modified. In 1852 a portion of HTB's land was sold to the Roman Catholic Church for them to build the London Oratory: this created a long driveway from Brompton Road at the end of which HTB manages to gain relative tranquillity.

The most recent major modification was during the 1980s when the crypt was rebuilt to provide meeting rooms and the space for the bookshop. Also during this time the pews were removed and replaced with chairs to allow greater flexibility in seating arrangements, which became imperative as take-up of the Alpha Course grew.

The substantial growth of the Alpha Course in the last 18 years has seen this course become the main focus of HTB, with its recent history reflecting this.

St Paul's Onslow Square

St Paul's Church in Onslow Square was opened in 1860. In the late 1970s, the parish of Holy Trinity Brompton merged with the neighbouring parish of St Paul's Onslow Square. St Paul's was declared redundant. An attempt by the diocese to sell the building for private redevelopment was thwarted in the early 1980s when local residents joined with churchgoers to save the church. In the late 1980s, the Parochial Church Council requested that the redundancy be overturned which allowed curate Nicky Lee and his wife Sila to "plant" a congregation there as well as undertake some building structural maintenance work. At its peak in the 1990s, this congregation had grown to several hundred.

In 1997, the congregation at St Paul's divided into three, with some going with curate Stuart Lees to plant a church in Fulham; others returning to Holy Trinity with Nicky and Sila Lee; and others forming the St Paul's Anglican Fellowship and remaining based at St Paul's with John Peters. This last group left in 2002 to plant into St Mary's, Bryanston Square.

During 2007, after plans by HTB to rebuild the 1960s offices were withdrawn following difficulty in getting support from local residents, HTB decided to undertake some renovations and to resume services in the church. St Paul's launched 9:00 am and 6:00 pm services in September 2007 and followed with an 11 am service on 20 January 2008 and a 4 pm service on 28 September 2009. In December 2009 the upstairs balcony was recommissioned for worship, having previously been used for administrative offices (the office occupants having moved to HTB's nearby office building purchased in 2008).

St Augustine's Church

Services at St Augustine's, Queen's Gate began to be administered from Holy Trinity Brompton following an invitation by the Bishop of Kensington in 2010. In March 2011, St Augustine's was formally merged into the parish of HTB.

Church plants

Since the 1980s, HTB has been involved in planting churches. This has resulted in a large number of churches that can be linked back to HTB either as a result of being directly planted by the church (so called daughter churches) or by being the plants of churches planted by HTB (so called granddaughter churches). These churches form the HTB network.

Alpha and HTB

The Alpha course was founded by clergy at HTB who over a period of twenty years kept adapting the programme in accordance with feedback until in the early 1990s the Alpha course started gaining worldwide attention. As Alpha grew it became the main focus for HTB as it sought to support Alpha's spread and growth.

Today this involves the production of advertising material and course material such as videos, books and tapes for each Alpha session and leader training material. Alpha is now run as a separate enterprise with separate fundraising and accounting but it remains closely tied to HTB, with most of Alpha's staff being accommodated in HTB's offices. The clergy of HTB also share Alpha duties such as overseeing Alpha conferences and training events in the UK and overseas.

Since the mid-1990s the Alpha course programme has remained largely unchanged allowing the energy of the church to develop other initiatives which fit with the Alpha course such as creating courses on marriage preparation, parenting teenagers, bereavement and recovering from divorce as well as publishing new books.

HTB itself runs Alpha courses three times a year and with these attracting 300–400 guests during each course they require all of the available space in the church buildings.

Other activities

Another important activity of HTB is its yearly church camp, named "Focus". This takes place over a week in Somerley Estate where typically 7,000 people attend and involve themselves in the many seminars, workshops and recreational activities. The size also attracts some prominent speakers to speak on issues affecting the church and society.

Since 1985, HTB has been actively involved in a process called church planting whereby struggling churches in London are boosted by scores – sometimes hundreds – of people committing to move from HTB to the identified church for at least a year. This also involves at least one member of HTB's clergy similarly moving to the new church to help lead worship, form pastorates and run local Alpha courses. Over the years nine churches have been planted in this way, including St Gabriels, Cricklewood, with some of these churches going on to make church plants of their own.

HTB also has thriving children's, youth and student ministries. Other notable activities HTB undertakes are services twice a year involving the large HTB choir – at Easter and Christmas – and several free classical concerts that utilise the church's pipe organ that was refurbished in 2004 as well as drawing on the talent of the nearby music colleges.

In September 2005 HTB started providing the talks given at the Sunday services as free downloads from its website and through their iTunes, YouTube and SoundCloud account. These downloads, which HTB has termed HTB Podcasts, have proved popular and more recently other talks specifically provided for the HTB Podcast community have also been offered, including answers to questions sent in by listeners. Each month the total download count from this catalogue of talks is over 40,000, with some talks making it into the top ten in the "Religion and Spirituality" section for iTunes.

In 2011 HTB formed the William Wilberforce Trust to bring together various social action projects that were linked with HTB. These projects include work in deprived neighbourhoods, addressing homelessness and providing practical support for people with addictions.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Holy Trinity Brompton)

• Holy Trinity Brompton
• HTB Sound Design – A Story of Excellent Sound