Historical themes in the Diocese of London: Faith and Worship

Where can I read sermons preached in London churches?

Any copyright library, such as the British Library, will have a vast collection of sermon literature, sometimes in the form of book-length collections, more usually in the form of pamphlet-length single publications or in bound volumes of one or more author’s sermons. You can locate sermons associated with persons or particular churches using a good online catalogue such as the online catalogue of the British Library, or Copac which brings together the catalogues of many important libraries. Lambeth Palace Library itself holds a very fine collection of pamphlets, not least those previously owned by Sion College, an organization of London clergy. And sermons are such ephemeral pieces that you may also find some preserved in other collections that do not make into the copyright collections or Sion: for London, it is worth being aware of the collections in St Paul’s Cathedral Library and at Pusey House in Oxford, for example (the latter is very strong on Anglo-catholic material); and it is always worth trying local studies collections in the local library. Many sermons were also reported in the press or periodicals, and it is possible to search for these online in many libraries such as the British Library (unless you know a particular date and place for a particular sermon, searching the print versions will be a laborious and possibly unrewarding effort).

Where might I find accounts of church services?

The raw parish records can be difficult to trace, but can also survive in unexpected places. As well as looking in the diocesan record office at the London Metropolitan Archives to see if they have been deposited there, you may find it worth around in cupboards in a church vestry or asking the clergy or churchwardens of the parish if they know of any that survive or if you can poke around in any dusty cupboards in the vestry. Parish magazines and newsletters might survive in local studies collections.

Visitation records can be consulted in Lambeth Palace Library or the London Guildhall. For correspondence to the bishop on a parish see the Fulham papers in Lambeth Palace library; for newspaper coverage see the collections now being transferred from Colindale newpaper library to the main British Library site where they join periodicals; in many cases these are also now available in digital and searchable form either on the library site or through a subscribing institution. For the results of surveys into London religion, which can describe what went on, see Charles Maurice Davies, Orthodox London: or phases in the religious life of the Church of England (1873), which gives accounts of particular churches.

A particularly interesting source is the survey of London churches was undertaken in the 1840s for the editor of the Times: ‘The principal clergy of London classified according to their opinions on the great church questions of the day’. This is held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, (Ms Add. C. 290), but it is hoped to mount a transcript on this website.