New Mission: Resettling an English church

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Ancient and craggy, St. Bartholomew's Church has been standing in Covenham, England, since 1257, not long after rebellious barons pressured King John into signing the Magna Carta. Abandoned in 1978 and slated for demolition, it may be reborn in Orange County, Calif. The Episcopal congregation of St. Matthews-by-the-Sea in Corona del Mar wants to make the cross-shaped church its home, shipping it from the windswept North Sea coastal village, about 130 miles north of London, through the Panama Canal to California. Though small (64 members), St. Matthews is wealthy enough to raise the estimated $750,000 required to dismantle, pack and ship the 729-year-old limestone edifice. It will be rebuilt in the Corona del Mar area, about half an hour's drive from Long Beach harbor, where another British relic, the retired liner Queen Mary, is berthed.

If the Covenham townspeople approve the sale, as expected, architectural students will be recruited for the painstaking dismantling procedure. When reassembled in California, the structure will nonetheless fall short of rivaling Puerto Rico's San José Church, built in 1523, which is claimed to be the oldest Christian church in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere. To its parishioners, said Rector James Hohlfeld of St. Matthews, the British medieval church "will serve as a demonstration of the Anglican tradition." That heritage can sometimes be difficult to maintain. At present, the rector's assistant, Samuel Scheibler, told the Orange County Register, "we're surrounded in Southern California by a high-tech, ultramodern environment and high-tech, ultramodern Christianity."