Guided Tour of Temple Church with Master Robin Griffith Jones

Join Master Robin Griffith-Jones, Master of the Temple and Bencher of the Inn for a tour of Temple Church. Drinks will be available for purchase from the Middle Temple Garden Room after the tour. Bookings are open to Benchers, Members and Students.

The Temple Church: from Magna Cart to The Da Vinci Code – with 800 years in between!

The Round Church was in use by 1163, the Chancel in 1240; both are outstandingly beautiful. The hero of Magna Carta (negotiated in the Temple) was buried here, where his effigy still lies. The Church has survived everything that time could throw at it: the Great Fire was stopped just yards from the Church; a second fire, in the frozen winter of 1678, had to be extinguished with beer; a bomb gutted the Church in 1941.

And yet the Church still stands at the centre of the Temple, in endlessly active use for services, concerts, socio-legal discussions and other events. It is (in Master Andrew Hochhauser’s phrase)  “the beating heart” of the Temple. Then came The Da Vinci Code, with a scene set in the Temple (and the Master described as famous for his foul temper...) – and after the novel, tens of thousands of Dan Brown pilgrims. Robin looks forward to welcoming you to the Church for a talk and tour, before we all go over to the Garden Room for refreshments.

Tickets for this event are free of charge, but registration is required.

The Rev and Valliant Robin Griffith-Jones Called to the Bench, 2008 Robin has five Masterships to his name: Master’s degrees at Oxford and then at Cambridge, the Crown appointment as Master of the Temple, and Honorary Bencherships of Inner and Middle Temple. He worked early on with Mother Theresa’s Sisters in India and with the long-term homeless in London, before returning to university to study theology. After a Curacy in Liverpool (1989-92), and a Chaplaincy at one Oxford College (Lincoln 1992-99) and a Lectureship in another (Exeter), he was appointed Master of the Temple in 1999.  He has written The Four Witnesses; The Gospel according to Paul; The Da Vinci Code and the Secrets of the Temple, and Mary Magdalene: The Woman Whom Jesus Loved.   Visit the Temple Church website to learn more.