St Barnabas's Church, Joydens Wood, Kent

St Barnabas's Church, Joydens Wood Church

The current building was erected in 1970 as a Church Centre attached to the Parish Church of St. Mary's in Bexley, to serve the residents of the mainly post-war housing estate of Joydens Wood. It was built on land previously used as a burial ground for patients at the former Bexley Psychiatric Hospital, located in the south west corner of the old asylum complex. The graves are unmarked and the names of the people forgotten. The burial site is today used as the churchyard which contains a small enclosed memorial garden dedicated to their memory. Bexley Psychiatric Hospital was built in 1898 on land that previously belonged to the Baldwyns Park estate. It closed in 2001 and the site redeveloped into the modern Bexley Park housing estate. The church lies just inside Kent, next to the boundary with the Greater London Borough of Bexley. A boundary marker can be seen wedged into a fence that separates the churchyard from the back garden of a private house which is in Greater London. The St. Barnabas congregation previously worshipped at a wooden church a short distance away in the grounds of Broomhills, another former manor house on the Kent-London border; which later fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1996. In 1924 the owner of Broomhills, Joseph Cameron, turned an existing wooden hall on his estate into a church for his servants and their families, dedicating it to St. Barnabas. The services were taken by the clergy of St. Mary's, Bexley. In 1949 his son, John Cameron, gifted the church to the Diocese of Rochester and had it physically moved across the Broomhills estate to a more visible location on the Old Bexley Lane, where it was rededicated in 1952. In July 1971 it closed and the congregation transferred to the St. Mary's Church Centre. It was later destroyed in a fire although its adjoining hall survived the blaze and is still in use today as a Meeting Room for the Plymouth Brethren. Joydens Wood was previously divided between two parishes: St. Mary's, Bexley and St. Michael's, Wilmington; who also had a small offshoot congregation meeting in the Joydens Wood Community Centre in Birchwood Drive. In 1979 the two congregations merged, resurrecting the St. Barnabas name again, and in 1993 St. Barnabas became a Parish in its own right; albeit one with the unique dynamics of being in both Kent and Greater London, and coming under differing council authorities! The building is simple and functional and used by many community groups; but the partitioned sanctuary area is beautifully maintained, with a pair of communion kneelers in front of the altar rail embroidered by a former parishioner. Hanging directly above the sanctuary is a fabric tapestry proclaiming You Lord are my Light; which was lovingly made in the early 1990s by a member of the congregation; and two plain and ordinary windows behind the altar are decorated using coloured acetates, which are changed regularly according to the Church of England's liturgical colours. St. Barnabas maintains a traditional but vibrant style of Anglican worship, with a dedicated congregation thst is very welcoming towards visitors. Text by Rob Baker

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