Emmanuel United Reformed Church, Cambridge

Emmanuel United Reformed Church
Emmanuel United Reformed Church Location in central Cambridge
Coordinates: 52°12′5″N 0°7′6″E / 52.20139°N 0.11833°E / 52.20139; 0.11833
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	United Reformed Church
Website	http://emmanuel-urc.org.uk/

Emmanuel United Reformed Church in Cambridge, England is located close to the centre of town, on Trumpington Street. Historically a congregational church, Emmanuel voted to join the new United Reformed Church in 1972. In addition to its Sunday worship, Emmanuel runs several community activities: a volunteer-staffed fairtrade cafe, a series of lunchtime music recitals and a share in Hope Cambridge's Churches Homeless Project. The current minister-elect is The Revd Dr John Bradbury.

The church has gone by different names over the years, first as the Hog Hill Independent Church and then the Emmanuel Congregational Chapel or Church.

The congregation was founded as the Cambridge 'Great Meeting' in 1687, at Hog Hill, the original building being there, on what is now the Old Music School in Downing Place. From 1691 the minister was Joseph Hussey; he is commemorated in the stained glass in the apse of the current building alongside John Greenwood, Henry Barrow, Oliver Cromwell, John Milton and Francis Holcroft. Hussey's congregation split in 1696, with some going to the meeting in Green Street, Cambridge, and again after he had left for London, in 1721, with a group founding the precursor of St Andrew's Street Baptist Church, Cambridge. The church was rebuilt on the same site in the later 18th century, opening as Emmanuel Congregational Chapel in 1790. The move to the new church on Trumpington Street, called the Emmanuel Congregational Church, came in 1874. The old chapel was put to use from 1881 as the Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women, for female science students in the University of Cambridge.