ST RAPHAEL'S CATHOLIC CHURCH

Above the window is a gilded monogram of the three letters IHS, This stands for Iesus Hominum Salvator – Jesus Saviour of Mankind.

The high altar is of white Sicilian Marble and was installed when the church was built. It is enriched with festoons of flowers and stands on three steps. It is furnished with six large candlesticks, made at the same time and probably designed by Charles Parker, the architect. The brass crucifix is of a later date. In the centre of the altar is the tabernacle in the form of a Lombardic temple. Here, the Blessed Sacrament is reserved and a pair of hanging lamps on either side of the sanctuary burn night and day to remind us of this. The door of the tabernacle is possibly 13th century, of Armenian origin, and is gilded in twenty-four-carat gold.

The smaller westward facing altar in front was purchased in Fatima, Portugal, in 2004. Beneath this is a brass casket containing a relic of

St Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, who died in the Tower of London in 1595. This relic was sealed in the altar at the time of its consecration. On either side of this altar is a pair of candlesticks made by a parishioner, John Ferrier, to complement those on the high altar. He also made the three brass votive candle stands and the twelve consecration crosses together with their sconces on the walls of the church.

In the first alcove on the right hand side of the sanctuary stands the celebrant’s chair. This, with its two matching stools, are again believed to have been commissioned by Charles Parker. They are carved in oak with cabriole legs and are, according to The Builder, of considerable interest. The chair has carved arms and the back has a carving of the Chi Rho.

The hand-painted decoration on the sanctuary is the work of an Austrian artist Peter Stoff and largely replicates the 1874 scheme. The communion rail is of cast iron, gilded in twenty-four carat gold with a mahogany top.

Standing with your back to the altar, looking up, you can see the beautiful painted beamed roof and the organ loft. The loft was a later edition to the church and contains an organ made by Bishop & Son in 1866. Unfortunately, it is no longer in working order. Looking down you will see the tiled floor, which was laid in 2011. It consists of thousands of individual tiles. The seven large roundels in front of the communion rails and down the aisle represent the Seven Sacraments.

To the left of the sanctuary is a large pulpit in white Sicilian Marble, and nearby, the baptismal font and gilded Pascal candlestick. Behind the font is a statue of St Antony of Padua, a Franciscan Friar who died 1231.

Above are three statues made by Mayer & Co. of Munich, which were installed in the 1874. They are of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the centre, flanked by SS Peter and Paul, the two great pillars of the early Church. Mayer & Co. made the best religious statues of the nineteenth century and their work is remarkable for the standard of painted decoration. The statues in St Raphael’s are good examples of their work, which is now rare. Below these is the entrance to the confessional.  

The first of the fourteen Stations of the Cross is located in this corner of the church. This popular devotion, which is prayed particularly during Lent and on Fridays, is said to have been introduced by St Francis of Assisi. He always longed to visit the Holy Land and the sites associated with Christ’s passion and death. The purpose of the devotion is to meditate on the events portrayed, whilst moving from scene to scene. They were painted in 2010–2011. Also visible is one of the twelve brass consecration crosses, which mark the places were the Archbishop anointed the walls of the church with chrism (or holy oil) during the consecration of the church. The candle beneath each cross is lit each year on the anniversary of the event and on major feast days.

As you walk down the side aisle you will pass two monuments. The first commemorates various members of the Savile, Mexborough and Raphael families. The second is a memorial to Princess Anne Löwenstein-Wertheim who died in an attempt to fly across the Atlantic. On the other side of the church are two further memorials. The first is dedicated to those parishioners who died in the Great War 1914–18. The second is a beautiful mosaic of the Nativity in memory of Captain the Hon. George Savile. He was the last member of the Savile family to own the church before it was purchased by the diocese of Southwark after the Second World War.

The Lady Altar is a later addition to the church, dating from 1873 and designed by Christopher Wray. It is made of white Sicilian marble to complement the style of the high altar and pulpit.  It stands on a step of richly patterned encaustic tiles. The altar itself is decorated with a marble reredos representing the Annunciation in panels delicately carved in shallow relief. These flank a large marble tabernacle with an engraved brass door. On the altar there is a statue of Our Lady and the Child Jesus, which is carried each year in a May Procession around the grounds of the church. Above the altar are three further statues by Mayer & Co. This time, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, flanked by St Joseph her husband, and St John the Evangelist.

This church, built by Alexander Raphael as an act of faith, remains a symbol of this country’s great Christian heritage. Its gold cross on the tower, seen from miles around, shines out over Kingston and the local area, drawing all to this spiritual wellspring where the traveller encounters the Master, living amongst His people in the Blessed Sacrament. The church is open daily for the celebration of Holy Mass and the sacraments, and is a place where people can contemplate and pray in silence.