Achapel of ease (orchapel-of-ease) is achurch building other than theparish church, built within the bounds of aparish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to travel distance.[1]
Often, a chapel of ease is deliberately built as such, being more accessible to some parishioners than the main church. Such achapel may exist, for example, when a parish covers several dispersedvillages, or a central village together with its satellitehamlet or hamlets. In such a case the parish church will be in the main settlement, with one or more chapels of ease in the subordinate village(s) and/or hamlet(s). An example is the chapel belonging toAll Hallows' Parish inMaryland, United States. The chapel was built inDavidsonville from 1860 to 1865 because the parish's "Brick Church" in South River was 5 miles (8 km) distance which took an hour to walk each way.[2] A more extreme example is the Chapel-of-Ease built in 1818 onSt. David's Island inBermuda to spare St. David's Islanders crossingSt. George's Harbour to reach the parish church,St. Peter's, onSt. George's Island.[3][4][5]
Some chapels of ease are buildings which used to be the main parish church until a larger building was constructed for that purpose. For example, the small village ofNorton, Hertfordshire, contains themediaeval church of St Nicholas, which served it adequately for centuries, but when thegarden cityLetchworth was built, partly within the parish, St Nicholas's became too small to serve the increased population. This led to the building of a new main church for the parish, and St Nicholas's became a chapel of ease.
Chapels of ease are sometimes associated with largemanor houses, where they provide a convenient place of worship for the family of the manor, and for the domestic and rural staff of the house and the estate. There are many such chapels in England, for example that atPedlinge inKent. An example in theNew World is Saint John's Chapel of Ease inChamcook, New Brunswick, Canada, which was built in the 1840s to support a gentleman's house and the small nearby settlement of shipbuilders, farmers, and a grist-mill.[6]
Sometimes an ancient parish church is reduced in status to a chapel of ease due to a shift of population. The churches of St MaryWiston andAll Saints' atBuncton inWest Sussex are an example of this. For centuries St Mary's was the parish church, located near toWiston House and therefore the centre of population, whilst All Saints' served the nearby hamlet of Buncton, as a chapel of ease. Today, however, the resident population of Wiston is tiny, whilst Buncton has grown, so that in 2007 the status of the buildings was reversed, with All Saints' becoming the parish church, and St Mary's reduced to a chapel of ease.
When two or more existing parishes are combined into a single parish, one or more of the old church buildings may be kept as a chapel of ease. For example, the six Roman Catholic parishes inPalo Alto, California, were combined into a single parish,St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, in 1987.[7] Since then, St. Thomas Aquinas Church serves as the parish church, with Our Lady of the Rosary Church and St. Albert the Great Church as chapels of ease.
When a parish is split because of expanding population a chapel of ease may be promoted to a full parish church. An example of this isSt. Margaret's Church, Rochester in Kent which started as a chapel of ease for the parish of St Nicholas in 1108, became a parish church in 1488, then reverted to a chapel of ease when the parish was recombined with St Peter's in 1953.