St John the Evangelist Church, Oxford

About

St John the Evangelist Church is a non-parochial church on Iffley Road in Oxford, England. It was built as the community church of the mother house of the Anglican religious order known as the Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE, aka the Cowley Fathers).

Since 1980 it has served also as one of the college chapels of St Stephen's House, Oxford. The building was designed by G. F.

Bodley (1827–1907) predominantly in a Decorated Gothic style and built in 1894–96. Its aisles and chancel have pinnacled flying buttresses. The castellated west tower was added in 1902.

The east, west and north-east windows contain stained glass designed by C. E. Kempe (1837–1907) and made in about 1900.

The Church contains a set of Stations of the Cross, by the leading late Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne. Representing the pinnacle of his painted devotional work, Prynne thought that the Church “afforded a unique opportunity by reason of the splendid wall-space" and regarded the commission as “a very great pleasure and high privilege." The striking – although not unproblematic – set of images was finally installed in the Church in 1921. The painting of "Jesus Christ Condemned to Death...