During the Second World War two of the three landmark churches in Coventry were destroyed by bombing - St Michael’s (the cathedral) and Christ Church. All that remained of the mediaeval church of Greyfriars was the tower and spire to which was attached the new Christ Church consecrated on 3 August 1832. This remained a place of worship until it was destroyed in April 1941. While ‘the third spire’ still stands today, the congregation moved first to St Mary’s Mission in Whitefriar’s Lane and then to the newly created parish of Cheylesmore, initially worshipping in the church hall and then in the new church building consecrated on 27 March 1958.

The Evangelical tradition of Christ Church that began in 1885 shaped the outlook of the congregation and successive incumbents promoted a clear Protestant and Reformed outlook that stood over and against the wider church both nationally (over the Prayer Book crisis of 1927-28) and locally (over and against the liberal Evangelicalism of the cathedral). The mindset encouraged a ghetto mentality that was ‘discredited theologically, displaced doctrinally and isolated socially’ (p23). Those at Christ Church who feared what was happening in the wider church even spoke of leaving the Church of England. Though at the time they remained, one hundred years later other issues have arisen which might lead some to distance themselves from the established church. Today to survive in a predominantly hostile and indifferent non-Christian culture, Christians are challenged to follow Christ and to promote an authentic biblical Evangelical faith.