Reginald John Campbell - The City Temple

The City Temple

On leaving Oxford he accepted a call to the small Congregational church in Union Street, Brighton, commencing his ministry there in the Summer of 1895. Within a year Campbell filled the church, and to accommodate the crowds who came to hear him preach the Union Street church merged with another larger church in Queens' Square in Brighton. Marie Corelli always attended the Union Street services during Campbell's time there.

He quickly became famous at Brighton as a preacher, so much so that in the Summer of 1902 Joseph Parker, the minister at the City Temple —‘the cathedral of nonconformity’ in London, and whose health was declining, invited Campbell to assist him by preaching at the City Temple's Thursday mid-day services. Following Parker's death in November 1902 Campbell was chosen as his successor and was inaugurated as minister of the City Temple on 21 May 1903. While his predecessor was theologically conservative, Campbell was emphatically not. A Socialist politically, his theology proved as radical as his politics.

Seven thousand people attended the services on his first Sunday. He was expected to preach twice on Sundays and at the popular Thursday lunchtime services. His sermons, which addressed both issues of the day and doctrinal questions, were instantly published and attracted much attention both in Britain and in the United States. Picture postcards of Campbell were soon on sale alongside those of actresses and other celebrities of the day, and the R. J. Campbell Birthday Book containing his ‘favourite poetical quotations, portrait and autograph’ could also be purchased. The publicity which attended his arrival in London rarely left him for the next dozen years. At the City Temple he notably enhanced his popularity as a preacher, and became one of the recognized leaders of Nonconformist opinion.

As his fame spread he was invited on a preaching tour of America and Canada. He left Southampton on June 13, 1903, arriving in New York on June 20. He preached or spoke at venues in New York, Boston, and Chicago. At Ocean Grove he spoke to a crowd of 10,000. He also preached in Toronto and Montreal, visiting Niagara Falls on the way.