St. Mary's Church, Moseley is a parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 in the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 located in Moseley

Moseley

Moseley is a suburb of Birmingham, England, two miles south of the city centre. The area is a popular cosmopolitan residential location and leisure destination, with a number of bars and restaurants...

, Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

.

History

St. Mary's Church, Moseley was licensed by the Bishop of Worcester (authorised by Pope Innocent VII) in February 1405, and the 600th anniversary was celebrated in 2005 with a series of special events.

The church is medieval. The earliest known reference is by Pope Innocent VII

Pope Innocent VII

Pope Innocent VII , born Cosimo de' Migliorati, was briefly Pope at Rome, from 1404 to his death, during the Western Schism while there was a rival Pope, antipope Benedict XIII , at Avignon.Migliorati was born to a simple family of Sulmona in the Abruzzi...

 in 1405.

It was rebuilt by J. A. Chatwin

J. A. Chatwin

J. A. Chatwin FRIBA, RBS, FSAScot , was a designer of buildings and the most prolific architect involved with the building and modification of churches in Birmingham, England, building or altering many of the parish churches in the city. He used both the Gothic and Classical styles...

.

Patterns of Worship at St Mary's

• 8:00am Holy Communion
• 10:00am Sung Eucharist
• 6:30pm Evensong (1st Sunday - Choral Evensong unless special festival services)

Special festival services that has fallen on the first Sunday has included Advent Lessons and Carols, All Souls service and Harvest Festival.

For both the 10:00am and 6:30pm services at St Mary's they are sung by either the Robed Choir or the St Mary's Singers and on some occasions jointly.

Patterns of Worship at St Annes's

• 11:00am Sung Eucharist
• (10:00am Matins on the 2nd Sunday)
• 5:00pm Alternative Evening Worship (4th Sunday) - Services such as Taize, Healing, Celtic, Songs of Praise and Cafe Style

List of Vicars

• C. E. Hopton (later Archdeacon of Birmingham)
• Walter Farquhar Hook
  Walter Farquhar Hook
  Walter Farquhar Hook , was an eminent Victorian churchman.-Background:He was the Vicar of Leeds responsible for the construction of the current Leeds Parish Church and for many ecclesiastical and social improvements to the city in the mid-nineteenth century...
  
   (later Vicar of Leeds) 19th century

• Lorys Davies (Later Archdeacon of Bolton and Bury)
• Robin Howard
• Hayward Osborne (later Archdeacon of Birmingham)
• Averyl Bradbrook (Also made Priest in Charge of St Anne's in 2004)
• Jeremy Dussek (Priest in Charge of St Mary's and St Anne's then formally Vicar of the United Benefice of St Mary and St Anne Moseley)

Music

Music has always played a part in services at St. Mary’s and for more than the past hundred years the church has maintained a strong choral tradition. There are currently two choirs, firstly the St Mary's Choir, a traditional Robed Choir consisting of some 18 treble choristers (boys and girls) and 12 "back row" (Altos, Tenors and Basses), many of whom were formerly Trebles in the choir. There is also the St Mary's Singers consisting of adult singers including female sopranos.

The Robed Choir as well as singing for the services of the church, undertakes singing holidays deputising for established Cathedral Choirs during their vacations. For many years they have had a choral exchange with the Eschersheim Youth Choir in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany (the latest in February 2005). In February 2000 and again in February 2004 the choir undertook a singing tour to Atlanta, Georgia, USA. During August 2006, they were Choir in Residence at Washington National Cathedral

Washington National Cathedral

The Washington National Cathedral, officially named the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church located in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. Of neogothic design, it is the sixth-largest cathedral in the world, the second-largest in...

, USA during August 2006. Residencies has included Ripon Cathedral (2009), Portsmouth Cathedral (2008), St Asaph's Cathedral in Wales, Sherborne Abbey, last year Salisbury Cathedral and Romsey Abbey and this year (2011) at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. This along with singing occasional services on Saturdays during the year, including Birmingham Cathedral, Hereford Cathedral, Bath Abbey, Gloucester Cathedral and Derby Cathedral.

The St Mary's Singers has shared tours with the Robed Choir in Atlanta and the last few exchanges in Frankfurt, but has also done their own short breaks in Frankfurt and Prague. They have sung occasional services at Birmingham Cathedral and at Tewkesbury Abbey in 1977. They sing for the opening and closing services for the 3D Course for the Birmingham Diocese at Birmingham Cathedral.

Organ

The church possesses an organ dating from 1887 by Henry Jones. It was overhauled in 1996 by Trevor Tipple of Worcester. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.

List of Organists

• Frederick Henry Bell 1871 - 1903
• George Howard Mann 1903 - ca. 1912
• Mick Perrier 1978 - Current

List of Assistant Organists

• George Howard Mann 1892 - 1903
• Victoria Gravenor ????-2001
• Ian Biggs 2001 -

Bells

The tower contains eight steel bells, originally hung at St Marie's, Sheffield (now the Roman Catholic Cathedral), where they were replaced by traditional bells after only 12 years of service because of the dreadful noise they made. The steel bells were sold to a local Moseley businessman who presented them to St Mary's in 1874.

There is currently fundraising to replace the current bells with a new peal of 10 traditional bells at a cost of £140,000.

Notable burials

St. Mary's contains the family vaults of the Holmes family, which includes Edward Holmes, Birmingham architect.