The History of the Dorcan Church starts in 1965 when St. Paul’s
Church in Edgware Road, off Regent Street in the centre of Swindon, was
demolished. The old St. Paul's was built in 1881 to a design by Edmund
Ferrey and extended in 1883 by John Bevan and served the centre of
Swindon for over eighty years. The site was sold to Woolworths for
£65,000 with a corner of the former church being retained and a small
chapel, St. Aldhelm’s, was constructed for occasional weekday services.
The processional cross displayed in the Church was presented by the
congregation to the old St. Paul's in 1893.
From the proceeds of the sale a new church was to be built in Covingham
and join the Anglican churches of St. John’s and St. Andrew’s in a new
enlarged parish. The Dorcan Church serving the estates of Covingham,
Nythe, Liden and Eldene.
Bishop Oliver Tomkins of Bristol believed that ecumenism was the future
of the Christian Church. He discussed the idea of the new church at
Covingham becoming the first official ecumenical church in the country
with Dr. Leslie Wollen, Chairman of the Bristol Methodist District.
After much discussion and many meetings, it was agreed to commission
the Rev. Michael Cripps (Anglican) and Rev Raymond Stevenson
(Methodist) as the first ministers to jointly run the new ecumenical
church. The commissioning took place on Friday 16th. September in Nythe
School. The new parish was to be known as Dorcan.
The first services took place in Nythe School. Although the new
area of Nythe and Covingham had over nine hundred homes, attendance at
these services was poor. Some eighty people of all denominations, both
clergy and lay people, were gathered together and given the task of
visiting every home with the news of the Dorcan Church. Each person was
allocated up to fifteen homes and, within a short space of time,
everyone on the Nythe and Covingham estates were aware of the new
church.
On the 10th. July 1971 St. Paul’s Church was opened built to a design
by the Brand, Potter, Hare Partnership. The Church Centre was to be a
flexible multi-purpose building for the whole community.
The Eldene congregation met for worship at the Eldene Community Centre
when it opened in 1973. It was intended for a church to be built in
Eldene, but the idea was abandoned in favour of using the local
authority centre. Previous worship was held in other local venues.
Eldene had now become part of the new Dorcan Parish.
In Liden, a small group first met for Holy Communion at the temporary
community centre on 6th. October 1974. The church increased in number
with the growth of the locality, meeting first of all in people’s
houses and then in the local primary school. A new church building,
octagonal in shape, opened in 1977 and was joined to the new Liden
Community centre. Liden was also part of the Dorcan Parish.
When Bishop Oliver Tomkins explained the new Dorcan concept to General
Synod, he was saddened when some of his fellow bishops said, “It won’t
work”. Forty years later, and many Anglican and Methodist clergy (both
men and women) have proved the Bishop right in his bold and imaginative
concept, and continued the excellent ministry begun by Rev. Michael
Cripps and Rev. Raymond Stevenson,
From the 40th. Anniversary magazine October 2006 by Nigel Sharp
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