What is a Chapel?
Many have enquired as to why our place of worship is called a chapel. The following is a short explanation that we hope will prove helpful.
Baptist congregations (along with many other denominations such as Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists) in the 19th century were considered as “non-conformist” places of worship. This meant that they were not a part of the Church of England and so their places of worship were not referred to as “churches.” Still today, in many areas of Britain , when one says that they attend “church,” it is understood that they attend the Church of England and when one says “I attend chapel,” many would understand that they attend a place of worship that is not a part of the Church of England.
Beeches Road Baptist Chapel was a non-conformist place of worship built in the 1800s and as a result the title of chapel was given to it. We understand that the Bible teaches that building where the people of God meet is not the church, but rather the people themselves are the church. For this reason we have retained the historic non-conformist title of chapel for our building.
