Editing Agapemonites (section)

==Upper Clapton==
[[File:Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lord, Upper Clapton 23.jpg|thumb|Winged Bull and Eagle at the doorway of the church in Upper Clapton]]
Between 1892 and 1895 the Agapemonites built the [[Church of the Ark of the Covenant, Upper Clapton]], London. It was designed by [[Joseph Morris (architect)|Joseph Morris]] (and his sons and daughters, some of whom lived with the sect<ref>{{cite web |title=(Former) Agapemonite Church of the Ark of the Covenant, Upper Clapton, London (Exterior) |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/churches/77.html |website=www.victorianweb.org |access-date=16 January 2019}}</ref>) in a [[Gothic architecture|Gothic style]].<ref>{{PastScape|desc=The Church of the Good Shepherd|num=1491140|access-date=25 January 2014}}</ref> Although it is fairly conventional in floor plan, the outside of the church is a riot of statuary and symbolism. The main doorways sport large carvings of angels and the four evangelists symbolised by a man, an eagle, a bull and a lion. The same four figures, cast in bronze, look out over the four quarters of the Earth from the base of the steeple. The two flanking weather vanes show a certain symbolic debt to [[William Blake]]'s [[Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion|Jerusalem]] depicting, as they do, a fiery chariot and a sheaf of arrows (presumably of desire), while the main steeple is clearly surmounted by a spear. The stained glass windows, designed by noted children's book illustrator [[Walter Crane]], and made by J. S. Sparrow, betray the unconventional nature of the sect as they illustrate the 'true station of womankind'.<ref>{{NHLE|desc=The former Ark of the Covenant|num=1235310|access-date=23 January 2014}}</ref> The church was abandoned after 1956, used by a splinter group,<ref>{{cite news |title=Court rules 'Ancient Church' is defunct |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2010/10-september/news/uk/court-rules-ancient-church-is-defunct |access-date=16 January 2019 |work=www.churchtimes.co.uk}}</ref> and now is used by the [[Georgian Orthodox Church]] who have renamed it as the Cathedral of the Nativity of our Lord.