St Barnabas Church is a wonderful building with an interesting history. Here’s a brief introduction..

The original church was built as a Chapel of Ease in 1822 based on a Gothic style design by a Quaker called Thomas Rickman.  It was built on land donated by the Right. Hon Richard Penn (Earl Howe) and cost approximately £6,000 to construct - equivalent to about £430,000 in today’s money. 

 As Erdington’s High Street took shape, the Church always stood proudly as an oasis of peace and hope.  Very often, charitable donations allowed various improvements to be made to the building, for example, in the 1930’s, the Needlework Guild raised funds to build the Lych Gate to mark the Centenary of the church.

 The church’s first vicar was the Rev. Hyla Holden Rose.  He died in August 1887 and his grave is near the Lych Gate in the churchyard.

 The original Chapel was dedicated in November 1920 as a Memorial Chapel in remembrance of the Erdington men who fell in the Great War. 

 Playing such an active part in the local community, the church looked forward to a bright future and grew over the years to be a prominent presence in the lives of many local people.

 You can imagine therefore, the trauma that unfolded as a devastating fire ripped through the building on the morning of 4th October 2007.

 Most of the church’s interior structure and contents were destroyed.  Only the external walls, the Bell Tower and one of the original 16 stained glass windows remained. 

 For sure, the church’s future lay uncertain but thankfully, the Right Reverend, David Urquhart, Bishop of Birmingham declared that the church was to be rebuilt, retaining as many of the original features as possible and five years later, in 2012, the new, St. Barnabas Church Centre burst into life.

 Literally, a phoenix rose from the ashes.  The architects cleverly blended many of the original features of the church building with the new contemporary Harbour café and two, high quality meeting spaces. ; little wonder that the new look St. Barnabas Church Centre went on to win design awards!

 Architectural highlights in the church space

Statues: Above the main internal doors into the church space is the “Christus Rex” statue, which means Christ the King in Latin.  This statue is a pair with the Welcoming Christ statue on the wall straight ahead of the doors as you come into the church.  They were both made by the sculptor Peter Eugene Ball (who comes from Coventry) and whose works of art can be found in many cathedrals and churches across Britain, including the cathedrals of Lichfield, Winchester, Derby and Southwark.

Stained Glass:  St Barnabas Church was historically known for its stained glass windows.  Only one of the original windows was saved from the fire and restored and this now sits on the north wall, immediately to the left as you enter the church.

Behind the altar is the stunning new window designed by Pippa Blackall which shows St. Barnabas and depicts his travels through the Mediterranean spreading the Gospel

Furniture:  The chairs and furniture in the altar area were designed by Declan O’Donoghue and bring forward the resurrection message through his sophisticated, yet simple empty cross design.  The shape of the altar is symbolic of the boat in which Jesus was present when the storm occurred in Lake Galilee. 

High Altar Reredos – a reredos is an ornamental screen covering the wall at the back of an altar.  Our’s is a representation of Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’. Carved in alabaster, this magnificent feature was saved from the fire but had to be extensively cleaned to restore it to its former glory. 

Chapel – On the left hand side of the chancel is our Chapel, a peaceful area for quiet prayer and reflection. 

Font – installed in 2013, the font was made in Dorset by Alex Evans and Zoe Cull. It’s made from Nabresina stone, a type of limestone, which came from a quarry in Northern Italy.

The Bell Tower and church clock – these were areas thankfully not damaged by the fire.  The church has an octave of eight bells which were refurbished in 1991. Our volunteer bell ringers meet as a group and always welcome new members who would like to learn the traditional art of bell ringing. The clock was manufactured in Handsworth, Birmingham and was refurbished in 2012.

First World War Graves - During the Great War of 1914 – 1918 many Erdington men answered the call of duty and went off to join the army but tragically, many never returned.  There are twenty nine men buried in the graveyard and their graves are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  This includes a memorial screen for eight servicemen who’s graves cannot be located in the graveyard.  The Erdington Historical Society, who hold regular monthly meetings at the church, identified a further 20 private headstones where families have remembered their loved ones buried abroad or lost at sea.