Diocese of calcutta

33, D.H. Road, Thakurpukur, Kolkata- 700 063 : Church Worship Service Timing – 7:30am; 2nd Sunday and 4th Sunday 6:00pm (HC)

Church of the Epiphany, in Thakurpukur, in South Kolkata belongs to the Oxford Mission. It is one of the branches of the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of the Epiphany in India and Bangladesh. In the year 1863, Rev. J. Headerling a CMS missionary established this Church, which was known as the “Thakurpukur Mission”. The Church was well known for its great contribution in the period 1850 – 1872. During this time Rev. James Long ministered in this Church. It set up the first school for the destitute children of this
area in the vernacular language. This set a precedent in the education field. To appreciate this contribution to society their Governor, Bishop of Victoria and Lady Carpenter, belonging to the Christian Missionary Society (CMS), visited the school.
During this period this church also took an active role in the social transformation. It took a stand against European oppression, especially during the “Indigo Riots”, when it became a centre of humanitarian activity. Rev. James Long published “Nil Darpan” in English, for which he was imprisoned for one month. It was at this time that this Church also became a centre for socio-cultural cum religious meetings. There were all-faith gatherings here. In 1879 Edward Ralph Johnson, Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan in India wrote to Marsham Argles in Oxford to send some university men to work specially among the students of Calcutta University. Argles was then the Principal of St. Stephen’s House, Oxford, a new theological college with special missionary interests. He consulted his friends and teachers and on October 18th 1879, called a meeting in his room in Christ Church, Oxford, which was attended by ten leading churchmen and Oxford dons. Then and there they decided to respond to Bishop Johnson’s appeal to establish the Oxford Mission in Calcutta, which would be a religious brotherhood with its base in India rather than a missionary society with its roots and headquarters in England.
The Chapel was built in 1909. It was designed according to the ideas of Father Douglas of the Brotherhood (Oxford Mission). The building work was carried out by C. John Grimes (later Archdeacon), who was then working as a civil engineer with the Calcutta Port Commissioners. The main idea was to have a simple building of a local hue and character with a skeletal steel structure and corrugated iron roof thatched with palm leaves. It was then decided that it would be good to add some brick walls, a stone floor and a bell tower to house the chapel bell. The bell-tower was constructed in brick in an Italianate or Campanile style (though the style obviously had links with some Byzantine or Asian tower-shapes); with a teak dome originally painted white and a cross in gold. Because of the expenses incurred in repair, the thatching was removed in the middle of the last century and the roof is now of brick-red painted corrugated iron, with some darma lining underneath.
In 1909 the CMS withdrew support, towards this Church. The Chapel and the congregation who worshiped here today belong to the Diocese of Calcutta, Church of North India.