Covid-19

In light of the Government guidance, the Church of England has said that all church buildings are to close to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

All services and activities in the building are therefore suspended for the time being.

However, the church has not shut down! We continue to pray for one another and our world and to support the vulnerable. We also continue to meet weekly online for a Sunday Morning Praise Service at 9:30am, via Zoom.

If you would like to receive more information please contact the Revd Katie Franks

Please contact the Vicar or the Churchwardens who are available to discuss funerals and weddings and to provide pastoral support.

Church wardens

June Thomas, 34 Grange Lane, Cople, Beds MK44 3TT (tel: 01234 831705) email: [email protected]

Julie Scherrer, 26 Grange Way, Willington, Beds MK44 3QW (tel: 01234 838623) email: [email protected]

Vicar

Rev Lynne Sandle

The Vicarage, 3 Grange Lane, Cople.  MK44 3TT
Phone: 01234 974722  Email: [email protected]
Please note that Lynne’s usual day off with her family is Saturday

Friends of Cople Church

For service times and other details for The Cople Church   www.achurchnearyou.com/cople

Safeguarding for a safer culture (or see SAFEGUARDING on our own Church website)

Weddings

A recent poll found that a high proportion of people would have loved to have had a church wedding if they’d known they could, but they didn’t think it was possible.  Some think they can’t have a church wedding because they have been married before and divorced, or because they don’t come to church, or because they think it would be too expensive.  So in case you or someone you know is planning a wedding and wondering about having it in the church please visit this excellent website www.yourchurchwedding.org which has many answers.

You don’t have to live Cople Parish to get married in the church: it is possible to do so with a ‘qualifying connection’ or by attending the Church and building up a legal connection – the vicar can talk through with you what that would mean.

Although it is not an automatic right for those who’ve been married before and divorced, the vicar is delighted to speak to anyone considering getting married in All Saints Church. If a wedding service is not possible, then a service of prayer & dedication can be offered in some circumstances.

For more details please contact the vicar or the churchwardens – their details are on this page.

The centre of Cople is dominated by the splendid All Saints Church. One of the most beautiful churches in Bedfordshire.

Our Church is a small, active, vibrant, welcoming community of faith in the heart of our village. Services are held every Sunday (more details here.)

The Church was originally built soon after 1087 by the De Beauchamp family and later became part of Chicksands Priory. The list of Vicars dates back to 1237.

It was rebuilt in the 15th century, although part of it a little earlier, by the families who owned the local manors. In the first part of the 16th century parts of the church were extended.

Church
Church

Only the top of the impressive and original ironstone tower is modern. The Church boasts a communion plate from around 1561, a 17th century sundial, a stain glass window installed in 1886 and six bells varying in date from the 14th century to early 20th century.

During the English Civil War Cople was in the Parliamentary camp because Sir Samuel Luke of Wood End was an important Parliamentary general. He was immortalised by Samuel Butler as Hudibras. The Vicar at that time, John Gwinn, was a strong Royalist and was arrested on trumped up charges of "debauched, lewd and contentious disposition." He was fined 100 pounds and committed to Newgate Prison, London. Later he was sent to Virginia, USA where he established the Cople parish (several historic references in theRecords of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations.)

Another notable Vicar was the Revd. Henry East Havergal, brother of the hymn writer Francis Ridley Havergal. Havergal planned and partly constructed the organ and, unusually for his time, supported the agricultural workers in their struggle for better conditions. Havergal also began the restoration of the Church.

The otherwise blameless Revd. Havergal found himself in a London courtroom, the defendant in a much publicised lawsuit brought by a so-called "sermon-monger" demanding to be paid for sermons written for Mr. Havergal. See The Sermon Monger page on Tom Hughes's web site Clerical Errors - A Victorian Series

Church
Church

Many visitors come to the Church to see the brasses all of which commemorate people who were members of the families who owned the manors in the parish and who built or rebuilt the church. The brasses date from 1400 to 1563.

In the front garden of the private house next to the church can be seen the Bier House. This is a small building from the late 19th century and was used to store the bier on which the coffins were wheeled into the church for funerals.

January 2021