Church History

 

My interest in church history began as a boy when I was taken around  cathedrals and churches by my mother. Then as a student I used to make a point of visiting different churches every Sunday. When I began to look into the history of our own church in Purley on Thames I soon got diverted into numerous side alleys and by-ways as I came across the vast amount of documentation which still exists and is preserved in numerous libraries and record offices.

 

On these pages I intend to place some of the results of my researches. While much is factual and can be checked in the records, some of the material will of necessity be conjectural. Many of our sources, especially those which go back to the early years of the church, were produced for a purpose, and that purpose is not usually merely to relate and record facts. This is especially true of the Bible which is full of speculative description in part and strangely silent on other issues.

 

Some of my views and conclusions may be thought to be heretical, certainly not in line with the traditional teachings of the church. But it is the separation of truth from fiction and myth from history which makes the study of church history so fascinating.

 

Try one of the following links

 

St Mary’s Purley | The Church in Berkshire | Berkshire Churches | Reading Abbey | The Early Church

 

 

G7000Chist 2/10/02