The Founder and St John’s High Church Anglicanism
Born in 1810, the Honorable Sidney Herbert was educated at Oriel College Oxford, where John Henry Newman and Edward Bouverie Pusey were fellows. He followed them into the Oxford Movement, described as High Church, which advocated the revival of the pre-Reformation liturgy and doctrines of the Catholic Church while rejecting the authority of the Pope.
The Anglo-Catholic tradition and liturgy practised at St John’s demonstrates the influence of the Oxford Movement, with the main focus of worship being the Holy Eucharist. Not surprisingly the trustees appointed as the church’s first minister the Reverend William de Burgh, a High Churchman. Some called it the ‘Puseyite’ church. High Church influences are discernible in the design of the Church with its images. Complaints were aired in the national newspapers regarding a cross on the gable wall of St John’s and ‘offensive carvings’ contrary to the Protestant disapproval of graven images. Gargoyles had to be removed. Herbert died in 1861, having served as Secretary of State for War at the time of the Crimean War. His son George succeeded as Earl of Pembroke on the death of Herbert’s elder brother in 1862. Sidney Herbert’s death, and the subsequent conversion of his widow to Rome, removed a major High Church influence.
Born in 1810, the Honorable Sidney Herbert was educated at Oriel College Oxford, where John Henry Newman and Edward Bouverie Pusey were fellows. He followed them into the Oxford Movement, described as High Church, which advocated the revival of the pre-Reformation liturgy and doctrines of the Catholic Church while rejecting the authority of the Pope.
The Anglo-Catholic tradition and liturgy practised at St John’s demonstrates the influence of the Oxford Movement, with the main focus of worship being the Holy Eucharist. Not surprisingly the trustees appointed as the church’s first minister the Reverend William de Burgh, a High Churchman. Some called it the ‘Puseyite’ church. High Church influences are discernible in the design of the Church with its images. Complaints were aired in the national newspapers regarding a cross on the gable wall of St John’s and ‘offensive carvings’ contrary to the Protestant disapproval of graven images. Gargoyles had to be removed. Herbert died in 1861, having served as Secretary of State for War at the time of the Crimean War. His son George succeeded as Earl of Pembroke on the death of Herbert’s elder brother in 1862. Sidney Herbert’s death, and the subsequent conversion of his widow to Rome, removed a major High Church influence.
The Hon. Sidney Herbert
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Elizabeth Herbert, Baroness of Lea
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John Henry Cardinal Newman by John Everett Millais
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Edward Bouverie Pusey
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