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| All Saints Church > Church History |
Church History
The story of All Saints' seems to have begun with the British Vice- Consul inviting other residents to attend a reading of the Church of England Morning Prayer on Sunday mornings in his own home, probably in the early 1880's. Puerto Orotava (later to become Puerto de la Cruz) began to be developed as a winter resort, and by the late 1880's as many as 130 people were attending services at Christmas and Easter. The first recorded meeting of a congregation took place in 1887, when a committee was elected. The meeting decided that a Chaplaincy Fund should be opened for subscriptions. The Chaplain was to be offered £1.10s.0d. per week and any surplus funds were to be given to charity. The Committee of four consisted of two Anglo-Catholics, one Scottish Presbyterian and one Scottish Episcopalian. One of the greatest benefactors was an American Unitarian lady. Quite an ecumenical beginning!! In 1887 a committee met under the chairmanship of the Bishop of Sierra Leone, Dr. Ingham; they agreed to take steps to erect a Church and discussed methods of obtaining the necessary funds to do so. It was also decided to hire a suite of rooms to be used for the Church of England services. They were named "The English Church Kennedy Rooms" In 1890, the Church Building Fund needed two hundred pounds more before the work of building could commence, having been granted a piece of land of about three acres by the Board of the "Grand British Hotel", at that time the largest hotel in the whole of Spain! On the 14th June 1891, the Church was used for the first service, but an outbreak of smallpox prevented a formal opening at this time. On the 1st November 1891, All Saints' Day, the Church was dedicated as All Saints'. The actual consecration of the Church did not take place, however, until the 15th January 1893, when the Bishop of Sierra Leone consecrated the Church. The congregation numbered 188 with 68 communicants, and the records state that as the debt on the church building fund had been cleared, the offertory of 356.08 Pesetas was given to the Bishop's Island Fund. In the years leading up to the turn of the century, the church began to develop and grow, helping the poor and contributing to the welfare of the local inhabitants. The two world wars took their toll, but the Spanish Civil War had no great effect on the resident island British community. All Saints' Church was treated with respect and consideration, and the other British institutions - The British Games Club and the British Library continued to be supported and patronised by our Canarian hosts and friends. During World War II the British community was reduced to about 9 families, yet they still managed to maintain their Church. By 1955 many more people were coming to Tenerife for winter holidays, and others were coming to retire or settle on the island for various reasons.With the boom in package holidays and the rapid expansion of tourist numbers, the congregations swelled, particularly in the winters. In the 1960's, the Swedish Lutheran Church, with which the Church of England is in communion, held services on Sunday evenings for Scandinavians, upholding the ecumenical ideals of the founders . German residents use the Church regularly for their EKD Services, again on Sunday evenings. In the light of the recent Porvoo Concordat between the churches of northern Europe, this is a welcome ecumenical development. In 1962, a generous donation enabled the installation of electricity to be carried out. The building itself is a very simple typical example of British Early English Gothic, with pairs of lancet windows to the side aisles. The stonework is random coursed local basalt, and the walls internally are unplastered. The sanctuary has a floor of patterned clay tiles, and a simple oak reredos across the width of the chancel. To the south, on the wall, is a very large-scale reproduction of "The Light of the World" by Holman Hunt. This was given as a memorial in the 1930's. The original organ on the north side of the chancel is no longer usable, but the the stencilled pipes are left in position for decoration. We now use an electronic organ in the north aisle, which is where our choir sit. There is some remarkable stained glass in the church. The most noticeable is the East window, with its figures of Faith and Hope flanking The Good Shepherd. The West window is, perhaps, the more remakable for the vibrancy of its colouring and for its content, for it could be called a "Te Deum" window, with its representative figures of prophet, apostle, archbishop and martyr, and wording from the Te Deum, that glorious Matins canticle, itself. The south aisle has a window from the 1920's with two prophets, Daniel and Ezekiel, and in the north aisle is the latest addition, the Millennial window with the Baptism of Christ and St Christopher. The font ,at the west end of the south aisle, is a lovely plain exampleof 1930's neo-classicism in Purbeck stone, and is a memorial to two soldiers of the First World War. A Church History
Booklet is being prepared, which contains a more detailed account of the history of All
Saints' Church, and will bring the reader up to the beginning of the 21st Century. Submenu
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