St Matthias Church (Stoke Newington)

St Matthias Church is an Anglican church in Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...

, north London

North London

North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is named for St Matthias.

Formation

St Matthias, once one of London’s foremost High Church

High church

The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...

es, was built from 1849-53, partly with money from a rich doctor named Robert Brett, who thought that the Dissenting

English Dissenters

English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.They originally agitated for a wide reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell....

chapels such as the nearby Newington Green Unitarian Church

Newington Green Unitarian Church

Newington Green Unitarian Church in north London is one of England's oldest Unitarian churches. It has had strong ties to political radicalism for over 300 years, and is London's oldest Nonconformist place of worship still in use...

were attracting so many worshippers in part because the Anglican pews were full. The church was consecrated in June 1853.

St Faith with St Matthias and All Saints

In 1873 two new parishes of Stoke Newington, All Saints and Stoke Newington, St Faith were carved out of the parishes of St Mary and St Matthias. All Saints church was in Aden Grove, replacing an earlier iron structure, in 1876. It was demolished in 1956. St Faith's church was built on Londesborough Road in 1873, badly damaged by bombing in 1944, and finally abandoned and demolished in 1949. In 2010 a photograph of St Faith's, showing bomb damage in 1944, was featured in Gavin Stamp's study of Lost Victorian Architecture and reproduced in Country Life.

Many churches were severely damaged by bombs during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Although St Matthias was restored, the extent of the damage, combined with a decrease in the population of the area led to a number of parishes being combined in the 20th century. For instance, in 1951 St Faith and St Matthias parishes were merged. In 1956 they were again merged with All Saints to form Stoke Newington, St Faith with St Matthias and All Saints In 1974 the name of the combined parish was shortened to Stoke Newington, St Matthias.

Since 2006

Father David Lambert became the parish priest on the 17 July 2006.

The dates for Parish mass are:

Day	Time	Location
Sunday	11:00 AM	Church
Monday	7pm	Church
Tuesday	7pm	Church
Wednesday	10am
Thursday	7.30am
Saturday	12 midday