Sacred Heart Church

Introduction

Sacred Heart Church in Henley-on-Thames was built in 1936 and designed by A.S.G. Butler. The church is in Arts and Crafts Gothic style, built of Flemish bond red brick with freestone dressings.

History

The first post-Reformation Mass in Henley was celebrated in September 1864, in an upstairs room rented over a shop in Bell Street. In 1888 the Archdiocese of Birmingham appointed Father John Bacchus as resident priest of a mission; he opened a small chapel in 1894. Father John Hughes succeeded Father Bacchus in 1910, bought the present site in Vicarage Road in 1935, and built the church incorporating Pugin works. The church was finally consecrated in 1943 after being paid for in full.

The Pugin work in the church came from the private Catholic chapel at Danesfield, built in 1850-3 by Augustus Welby Northmore and Edward Welby Pugin, and demolished circa 1901. The east window stained glass is by John Hardman.

Architecture and furnishings

The west end features a pointed-arch doorway with carved wooden tympanum and statue niche above with canopy, flanked by tall 2-light pointed-arch windows. The south side has three brick buttresses rising through eaves and two pointed-arch traceried windows truncated below tracery. The north aisle has a parapeted roof, three 3-light windows with straight heads, buttresses between, gallery stair in N.W. angle and gabled chapel in N.E. angle with chancel. Rising above the chancel is a large east tower with parapeted cross-gables and small open-work metal spire surmounted by a cross.

The tower has a large 5-light east window with reticulated tracery and tall straight-headed lancets on north and south sides. The interior has rendered walls with stone dressings. The interior has a 3-bay north arcade without capitals and with shafts rising to roof, the metal trusses sheathed in wood. The gallery at the west end has a panelled front and a late C20 organ. In 2010, a room in the Crypt, directly under Our Lady's Altar was fitted out and consecrated as a Columbarium for the interment of ashes.

Music and liturgy

The parish gathers 15 minutes before Mass to pray Morning and Evening Prayer. The parish holds days of recollection focused on the Church's year, at the beginning of Advent or Lent, or arranged to support ministries such as Readers or Eucharistic Ministers. The parish welcomes enquiries from musicians and anyone who can play the keyboard or organ.

Parish life

The parish supports CAFOD's projects worldwide. The parish supported Operation Christmas Child, sending 122 shoeboxes to Africa and Asia.

The parish has a team of Eucharistic Ministers who visit the sick and housebound each week, as well as care homes, hospitals and hospices within the parish. The parish has a team of catechists who teach various aspects of faith and prepare people for the sacraments, including Children's Liturgy, First Communion, Confirmation, and adults. The parish has a team of flower arrangers who create seasonal displays for liturgies. The parish has church cleaning teams that clean the church building each week. The parish's sick and housebound are visited weekly and regularly receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the Anointing of the Sick.

Regular events

As a daily practice, there is a 30 minute prayer time that begins with the Angelus and may include the Rosary, Stations of the Cross, Lectio Divina, and courses on the Gospel of Matthew and John. The parish celebrates an annual Mass for Deceased Spouses, and during November the community regularly prays for all those interred in the Columbarium.

Sacraments and pastoral care

Sacramental preparation for Confirmation for children at Sacred Heart School takes place through the RE Curriculum, beginning in year 6 from the start of the Spring Term. Young people not attending Catholic schools are asked to attend a course designed to help them reflect on the meaning of their Catholic faith in their lives.

Couples are asked to contact the parish at least a year ahead of their proposed wedding day to reserve the date and allow time for preparation. An important element in the preparation for children's sacraments is a series of parish family Masses focusing on gathering, listening, thanking, sharing and going into the world.

Anyone interested in becoming a Catholic is initially called an enquirer, and once their desire outweighs reservations they can ask to enrol as a candidate for reception into the Church. Unbaptised enquirers may be invited to a celebration at St Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham to be formally invited by the bishop to prepare for Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. The parish invites couples celebrating significant wedding anniversaries to renew their marriage promises at one of the parish Masses.

Visiting

The church is a listed building. The parishioner's book Sacred Heart Parish: A Pugin Legacy (2012) tells the story of the parish and is available from the parish priest or on Amazon.