Cathedral Church of the Holy Family

At a time when Ukraine is very much in the news, Paul Waddington takes a look at the London cathedral of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

In a very fashionable area of Mayfair, only 100 yards from Oxford Street and close to Grosvenor Square, can be found the Cathedral of the Holy Family. It is the cathedral church of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Eparchy of London. The word eparchy is the term used in Orthodox Churches to describe a diocese. Before describing this very fine building, we should, perhaps, say something about the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGKC) is a sui juris Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with Rome. It is the largest of the Eastern Catholic Churches, currently having around 4.1 million members worldwide. Within Ukraine itself, the UGCC is the third largest denomination, behind the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (subservient to the Moscow Patriarchate) and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (recognised by the Patriarchate of Constantinople). The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church predominates in Lviv and the western oblasts of Ukraine, but has a significant diaspora in a dozen countries, including Poland, the United States and Canada. In England, there are thought to be about 25,000 members, mostly concentrated in London and the industrial regions around Birmingham and Manchester.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Ukrainians began to settle in England, especially in the Manchester area. Although they had no resident priest of their own, a priest from Belgium or France would occasionally visit, and a community built up around the Church of St Chad, which is now the home of the Manchester Oratory. It was not until the Second World War, when priests were sent to minister to Ukrainian troops, that this community gained a regular chaplain.

Parishes developed

In 1957, the Apostolic Exarchate for Ukrainian Catholics in England and Wales was formed - an exarchate being a mission territory with a status somewhat below that of an eparchy or diocese. William (later Cardinal) Godfrey, the then Archbishop of Westminster, became the first Exarch and served in that role until his death in 1963, when he was replaced by Bishop Hornyak, a native Ukrainian. Gradually, Ukrainian Greek Catholic parishes were developed, and these now number thirteen, mostly in the Midlands and around Manchester. Finally, in 2013, Pope Benedict XVI raised the Exarchate to become the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family, giving it independence from the Archdiocese of Westminster.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church acquired its Cathedral of the Holy Family in 1967 with the help of Cardinal Heenan, who funded the purchase of the “Kings Weigh House Church”, a redundant Nonconformist chapel in Mayfair. This building, and the particular sect that occupied it, had an interesting history, dating back to the Act of Uniformity of 1662, when part of a congregation in the City of London seceded from the Established Church and set up its own independent chapel. Its first premises were in Cornhill above a building where imported goods were weighed for taxation purposes. This Congregational sect became known as the Kings Weigh House Church, a name that it retained throughout its 300 years of existence. It later moved to a site now occupied by Monument Underground Station. The building of the Metropolitan & District Railway forced further moves ending in 1891 with a new and very fine chapel being built in the West End.

At its new location, the Kings Weigh House Church, as it was still popularly known, gained a reputation for lively preaching, most notably by one Rev. Dr W E Orchard, the minister who was in charge from 1913 to 1932. Although a Congregationalist, he has been described as idiosyncratic, and was accused of having Romish tendencies. Some sources suggest he reconciled to the Catholic faith before he died. During his tenure, the eastern end was converted into a chancel by relocating the organ and inserting additional windows which were filled with stained glass. The remodelled chancel was provided with a marble floor.

The interior showing iconostasis and gallery

After his departure the congregation began to decline and was dealt a major blow in 1940 when a bomb fell on the church during a communion service destroying part of the roof and killing the minister’s wife. The roof was not fully repaired until 1953, and the congregation continued to decline until the church finally closed in 1965. It seems that the repair to the roof was imperfectly carried out, as there was a further collapse in 2007, causing temporary closure of the building, which by this time was a cathedral.

Masterpiece

Built between 1889 and 1891, the architect of the King’s Weigh House was Alfred Waterhouse, who is best known for designing the Natural History Museum in Kensington. It is a masterpiece, both for the way its oval nave is built into a rectangular site, and for the originality of its Italianate Romanesque design which incorporates elements of neo-Gothic. It is about as far from the usual conception of a Nonconformist chapel as one can get.

The Duke Street facade is extremely impressive, featuring a multi-stage square tower with a short spire at the (liturgical) south-west corner. This is balanced at the north-west corner by a lower gabled structure. Between is a triple arcaded porch reached by a broad flight of steps. Above the porch is a parapet, and above again is a range of five round-headed lancet windows fitting into the gable end. The whole is made from red brick, richly embellished with buff terracotta tiles. It is fortunate that a side street that adjoins Duke Street allows distant as well as close up views of the west facade.

The west facade gives no clue that the nave of the cathedral is essentially oval in plan. However, this feature can easily be observed from Weighhouse Street or Binney Street, where there are views of the curving upper storeys growing out of a rectangular ground floor. The parapet, which is a prominent feature above the porch of the west frontage, is copied with even greater effect at the south frontage. Here, it provides a neat transition between the rectangular plan of the ground floor, and the oval structure of the higher parts of the building.

The inside of the cathedral is every bit as impressive as the outside. An unusual feature is the elegant oval or horseshoe shaped gallery, which is one of the few clues to Nonconformist origins of the cathedral. Also very prominent is a huge central chandelier, which hangs from the domed ceiling and has so many lamps that it can light up the entire interior.

One of the modifications required to convert the former chapel to an Eastern Rite cathedral was the installation of an iconostasis to screen off the sanctuary. This is made from dark wood, and was installed in 1980. It includes numerous colourful icons on gold backgrounds. The High Altar is concealed behind the screen, although there is a small altar and lectern in front. There is an ambulatory behind the High Altar which houses a stone relief of the Holy Family. This was brought from the now-demolished chapel at Saffron Hill at the edge of the City of London, which was formerly used by Ukrainian Catholics. It dates from around 1855.

Until recently, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family was difficult to visit, as it was kept locked outside service times. However, since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, it has been kept open throughout the day, and has attracted many visitors, including the Prime Minister.

The west frontage of the cathedral