Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, Portsmouth

St John the Evangelist, Portsmouth
St John the Evangelist, Portsmouth
Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist
	St John the Evangelist, Portsmouth Shown within Hampshire
OS grid reference	SU6392300478
Location	Portsmouth, Hampshire
Country	England
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Website	portsmouth catholiccathedral.org.uk
History
Status	Cathedral
Consecrated	1882
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	10 January 1953
Architect(s)	Joseph Hansom
Style	Gothic Revival
Years built	1882
Administration
Province	Southwark
Diocese	Portsmouth (since 1882)
Clergy
Bishop(s)	Philip Egan
Dean	Dominic Golding
Laity
Director of music	Peter Newman
Organist(s)	Catherine Christmas

The Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist (also known as St John's Cathedral) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Portsmouth, England. It was opened in 1882 and is the first cathedral to have been built in Portsmouth. It is the mother church of the Portsmouth diocese and seat of the Bishop of Portsmouth, currently the Right Reverend Philip Egan. It was dedicated on 10 August 1882.

The cathedral is one of two cathedral churches in the city, the other being the Church of England Cathedral Church of St Thomas which is located about one mile to the south.

History

Founding

Before 1791 it was illegal for Catholics to have chapels within towns of Borough status, like Portsmouth. The Second Catholic Relief Act of 1791 allowed Catholics to open a chapel in Portsmouth. A group of Catholic lay people in the town appealed to the Catholic bishop in London for a priest whom they would support. The first priest was John Cahill who had a chapel in a private house in Unicorn Street. He was succeeded in 1794 by Joseph Knapp who opened a purpose-built chapel in 1796 in Prince George Street to seat 300 people. This chapel was enlarged in 1851 because of the ever-increasing number of Catholic soldiers in the British Army (about 30%) and Portsmouth was a major garrison town. By the late 1870s an even larger church was needed. The land that this cathedral is built on was purchased from the War Department in 1877 because Portsmouth's defensive ramparts, 100 metres to the west, had become redundant and were demolished.^[1]

Opening

It is the first cathedral to have been built in Portsmouth as the Anglican Cathedral Church of St Thomas was not opened until 1927. The new church was opened for worship in August 1882 and was immediately made the mother church of the new Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth. The old chapel was closed and the cathedral was completed in four phases: 1882, the nave; 1886, the crossing; 1893, the chancel; 1906 the narthex and west Porch. The cathedral was badly damaged when enemy bombing in 1941 destroyed Bishop's House next-door. Since restoration in 1950 the inside of the cathedral has been reordered three times: in 1970, 1982 and 2001.

Until 1884, the cathedral and chapel which proceeded it were the only Catholic churches in the Portsmouth area. In 1884 St Swithun's Church was opened in Southsea.^[1]

Priests

In 2013, Canon David Hopgood and Father Philip were transferred to other parishes. Canon Dominic Golding and Father James McCauley took their places.

Choir and Altar Serving

The choir is led by Peter Newman, who also plays the organ with Catherine Christmas. Altar Servers are always at Mass, and the leader varies.

On the Internet

Portsmouth Cathedral Masses are now being recorded and are available to see online.

Structure

The cathedral may be described architecturally as 19th century French Gothic because it has a curved apse and shallow transepts. It was originally designed by John Crawley to have a tall spire at the south-west corner, but the underlying geology made this impossible. Crawley died just as building started and his partner Joseph Hansom took over the project and modified the design. The church is built of Fareham Red Brick with Portland Stone dressings. Most of the stained-glass windows sustained some bomb damage in 1941, especially those over the high altar. The round window in the south transept was the only one not damaged. An elaborate baldacchino surmounting the high altar was removed in the 1970 reordering. The last part to be built was St Patrick's Chapel in 1924.^[2]

Present

Parish

There are now four Catholic parishes within the City of Portsmouth. Besides its function as the mother church of the diocese, St John's Cathedral serves a parish of some six square kilometres with regular services.^[1]

Discovery Centre

The Cathedral Discovery Centre is a multi-functional resource of the parish. It includes a resource centre that hosts a range of educational and Catholic courses for schools and parishes and a repository which sells books and rosaries. As well as a coffee shop, there are also syndicate and training rooms and an adjacent car park.^[3]

Diocese

The diocese is within the Metropolitan Province of Southwark. It includes the whole of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands as well as parts of Berkshire and Dorset, stretching from Abingdon, Oxfordshire ]], in the north to the island of Jersey (near the French coast) in the south.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c History of the Cathedral, Portsmouth Catholic Cathedral
^ British Listed Buildings
^ Discovery Centre, Portsmouth Catholic Cathedral

External links

[history-1] History of the Cathedral, Portsmouth Catholic Cathedral

[2] British Listed Buildings

[3] Discovery Centre, Portsmouth Catholic Cathedral

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