Holy Trinity Brussels - CRP Dedication 12th June 2004

It started with a simple request for handicapped access to Holy Trinity Church. It ended five years later, with the help of € 700,000 in private donations, thousands of hours of volunteered time and expertise, and no doubt a whole lot of prayers.

The centenary renovation of the church entrance and hall, which was dedicated June 12 by the Lord Bishop of London, is the first major construction project at Holy Trinity in almost four decades. The project is not only historically significant – Holy Trinity was built in 1885 and is one of Belgium’s oldest Anglican churches – but also culturally significant for the Anglicans in the Brussels region.

"Five years ago, we began to dream dreams," said Chaplain Nigel Walker, who will retire at the end of the year. "We have today, brothers and sisters, seen our dreams come true."

Holy Trinity is the largest Anglican church in Belgium and one of the largest in Europe. About 475 people attend the church, though about 30% of the congregation changes every year as people move in and out of the capital of Europe, according to Peter Walley, the associate chaplain, and a former civil engineer and the project manager.

Against that backdrop, the size and scope of the renovation are formidable. Many in the congregation dug deep into their pockets, while more still spent plenty of Saturday mornings with paintbrush in hand, donating their time.

When Holy Trinity began the project, the members were asked what they wanted in the new centre: 135 different requests poured in and that’s how a plan for handicapped access turned into a complete renovation.

"The original project was € 375,000 for handicapped access," says Peter Mackenzie, the project director. "That had seemed to the boys and girls at the time like a helluva lot of money. They were trying to fit the building to the budget, as opposed to saying, ‘This is what we want, how do we find the money?’"

The centre, which is about half as large as the church itself, contains a large meeting hall for concerts and events, five classrooms, a kitchen, and the licensed bar.

Still, Holy Trinity hasn’t quite raised all of the money it needs. The new hall needs air conditioning, the kitchen needs new equipment, new folding tables and chairs for the hall. Total: € 135,000 still to go.

While the renovation only increased the size of the hall by 335 square feet, Richard Craddock, a partner at the architectural firm iD Studio, had to overcome many challenges.

"You have two buildings really," he explains. "One is the church, which dates from the turn of the (19th) century, then you have this wrap-around building from the early 1960s which contains the classrooms and a hall. It is a huge, three-dimensional jigsaw."

When Holy Trinity was originally built on Rue Capitaine Crespel, it could be seen from Avenue Louise because it sits atop a hill. But as the centuries went by, the church was hidden by the surrounding development. So much so, Craddock says, that Belgian officials at both the Commission Royale des Monuments et des Sites and the Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique "were unaware this building existed and got very excited when they knew about it."

The influence of the city authorities, however, was limited because all of the money to pay for the project came from congregation, not city coffers.

To link the church with the hall and classrooms, a side entrance had to be punched through the church wall, but Craddock managed to minimize the impact on the church itself. He also designed a roof made of lead, a traditional ecclesiastic material.

Belgian artist Etienne Tribolet designed a new stained-glass window for the entry. The window includes a reference to the biblical text (Matthew 28, verses 19-20) that inspired the pattern.

The centre was dedicated to Charles Le Jeune, a beloved member of the congregation who died in May 2003. The bar downstairs (the Duke of Wellington) was renamed "Mackenzie Bar" after the project director.

There are almost always changes to any construction project. But none surprised Chaplain Walker so much as the new, gold-coloured plaque above the doorway of the main meeting room: "Walker Hall."

"I’ve only just seen it," he said, smiling humbly. "They must have put it up during the service."

See photos of finished renovation works

Picture Gallery by Roger Cox