St Philip & St James Oxford

 

 St Philip and St James now the Oxford Centre for Mission Studys was one of the last two churches I wanted to visit from the Book Oxfordshires Best Churches. My feeling when I first looked was it would not be possible to go inside, then I came across the Open Doors event in Oxford. After looking on the list I found the last two churches I needed access to were open needless to say I went along. Click on the link for the history and more information about the church. You will find stained glass over load this week, the church is full of it

 

 Some of the photos outside were taken with my compact. I used my iphone inside

 South side of the church, the gate leading you to the south porch was locked so I could not get any nearer to the church

South transept

Good job my compact zoom has a long reach to get this photo of the foundation stone

The spire which is one of the ones you see around Oxford

From over the Woodstock Road

The door had only been open a short while

Inside was not as cluttered as I thought it would be and I could see the altar

The rood which is on a beam across the chancel arch

The beam has an inscription across it

The apse with the chancel in it

The altar and rerdos

The Reredos really is stunning

 

Above the east window which is partly blocked off by the rerdos
 

Windows on either side of the apse

Ceiling view

Crown,

Apse 

Not sure what when wrong with this one It's a bit out of focus

This is the view from the pulpit

Looking back to the entrance 

Ceiling in the nave

Zoomed with my phone so best I could get

 The window, the zoom on my iphone 14 pro is not quite as good as I thought it was

The windows around the church show the stations of the cross

This is not something I have seen before, normally they are plaques on the wall

These show the Crucifixion and placing in the tomb

Three windows behind some book shelves 

I thought this was a roll of Honour, there are a lot of names on it

The door leads to an off ice now but used to be the north transept, on the left of the door is the Roll of Honour, the filing cabinet hides most of it

Carving over the top show I think Jesus in his mothers arms and below St George and St Michael

The capitals on the pillars 

Are beautifully carved

Candelabra with candels 

Look up and there is more stained glass to see

Priests chair

One of the high windows

The font cover is what I wanted to see

It really is quite stunning to see

I left this photo of the Madonna and child which I loved and is over the door to the old south transept

Till next time may I wish you all a peaceful weekend