History

St Michael's was built in 1328 both as a Parish and a Collegiate Church. The design was unusual for the time, with the nave (where the congregation sits) considerably smaller than the choir. This innovative plan was subsequently to be adopted by most Cambridge and Oxford College Chapels.

St Michael's Church has a colourful history. In the sixteenth century its worshippers numbered the Bishop of Rochester, Saint John Fisher. During the Edwardine Reformation it was the Parish Church of Paul Fagius, a German Protestant divine, whose mortal remains were exhumed from the Church during the reign of Mary Tudor and posthumously burnt in the marketplace for heresy alongside those of another German Protestant scholar, Martin Bucer. In the seventeenth century a Royalist Mayor of Cambridge, another worshipper, bequeathed a portrait of King Charles I to the Church shortly after the execution of the king.

In the second half of the last century, St Michael’s was united with the neighbouring parish of St Mary the Great and the church was redesigned internally and used as a parish hall. By the early 1990s, the Church building became increasingly in need of significant repair and rebuilding and it was agreed that the Church should be adapted to serve the wider community as a valuable resource in the heart of Cambridge.

It took eight years to plan, raise funds and build the Michaelhouse Centre. It remains part of the parish of St Mary the Great with St Michael, Cambridge.

The broad strategy was simple

• · To restore a magnificent medieval Church
• · To provide well-appointed, versatile rooms and facilities for meetings and activities
• · To offer the refurbished building to the community of Cambridge.
• The Michaelhouse Centre is now run by a charitable trust, and employs a full-time manager.
• The Chaplain divides his time between Great St Mary’s and Michaelhouse to help develop the ministry in the city of Cambridge. Staff in addition include a part-time Administrative Assistant and a Chaplaincy volunteer.
  
  If you would like to find out more about our work, why not browse our diary pages to get an idea of the breadth of activity at Michaelhouse? Perhaps you'd like to support the work of Michaelhouse yourself and may wish to consider becoming a Friend of Michaelhouse? Simply email us for more details. Finally, you may wish to become a member of the worshipping community of this church, or pray for its work, contact the chaplain, Andreas Loewe, for more details.