Best Modern Churches shortlist announced

Bishop Edward King Chapel, Ripon College, Cuddesdon (Photo: National Churches Trust)

Over 20 churches have been shortlisted for the Best Modern Churches architecture competition being run by the National Churches Trust, The Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association and the 20th Century Society.

Judges will select their Top 10 from a shortlist of 20 and award a National Churches Trust Diamond Jubilee Architecture prize to the three places of worship judged to be the best sacred spaces built in the last 60 years.

The awards are to be presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury at a ceremony taking place at his official residence, Lambeth Palace, on 7 November.

The shortlist has been compiled from over 200 churches nominated by members of the public, churches and heritage organisations.

The nominations were for church buildings or significant extensions to an existing building of any Christian denomination in the United Kingdom which opened for worship after 1 January 1953.

St Albert the Great Chapel, Edinburgh (Photo: Simpson & Brown)

The Best Modern Churches competition is being held to mark the 60th anniversary of the National Churches Trust, which has provided over 12,000 grants and loans worth £85 million to help fund the repair and modernisation of Christian places of worship since 1953.

Judges for the awards are: Sherry Bates, President Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association, Richard Carr-Archer, Trustee of the National Churches Trust, Catherine Croft, Director of the 20th Century Society, Jonathan Glancey, writer and architecture critic.

The churches up for awards are: Our Lady and St Columba RC Church, Wallsend English Martyrs RC Church, Wallasey St Mary's RC Church, Leyland Scargill Chapel, Skipton St Mark's Church, Broomhill, Sheffield St John the Baptist Church, Lincoln St Joseph's RC Church, Leicester St Paul's Church, Harlow St Paul's Church, Bow Common Lumen United Reformed Church, Tavistock Place, London WC1 St Paul the Apostle, Harringay All Saints Church, Croydon SS Mary & Joseph RC Church, Poplar Church of the Ascension, Wembley Park Abbey Church, Douai Abbey, Woolhampton Church of the Ascension, Crownhill, Plymouth Bishop Edward King Chapel, Ripon College Cuddesdon RC Chapel of St Albert the Great, Edinburgh University Brucefield Church of Scotland, Whitburn, East Lothian St Francis Xavier RC Church, Falkirk St Bride's RC Church, East Kilbride Kildrum Parish Church, Cumbernauld Our Lady of Lourdes RC Church, Steelstown St Molua's Church, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast

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