So Jane Austen.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has no pleasure in elegant architecture, must be intolerably dull. So here we are, facing this edifice. It was chronicled years ago on these pages, but has lately acquired an urgent significance.

The coming December marks Jane Austen’s 250th birth anniversary, and this Church of Epiphany in Gurugram’s Civil Lines connects us to the world of that timeless writer. For this tiny structure evokes the spirit of those village churches in England that, a devoted Austenite imagines, must have been frequented by the good people encountered in her novels.

A plaque on the site asserts the same argument. It links the church’s revivalist gothic architectural style to “parish churches built in the 19th century in rural England.” The church in fact was consecrated 90 years after Jane Austen’s birth, and the Bishop who had the privilege to execute the task arrived all the way from Lahore on a horse-drawn carriage.

Today, the most startlingly new aspect about the old church is its colour. The exterior used to be red. Now it is white, following an ambitious award-winning restoration undertaken during the post-Covid years. Otherwise the church hasn’t visibly altered, staying as steadfast as the wise Elinor Dashwood in Jane Austen’s first published novel Sense and Sensibility. Strolling about the building subtly reveals its quiet grace: tall and slim lancet windows, discreet bell tower, gabled roof, and the semi-circular apse.

This afternoon, the church is empty. A window ledge is taken over by a vase of fresh pink flowers. The fans are hanging low by long rods from an extraordinarily beautiful ceiling. The altar stands at the polar end of a red durree. The stained glass panel behind the metal cross depicts the crucifixion of Christ, a blue-robed Mary Magdalene is sitting at the foot of the cross (Mary was also the name of one of the sisters in Pride and Prejudice; another Mary was in Mansfield Park).

Originally built for British officers, the church traces its roots to the colonial times. Jane Austen too belonged to a society that colonised us. This said, the six novels she wrote in her brief life display a most thorough knowledge of human nature, accompanied by liveliest effusions of wit. They have transcended the writer’s homeland, becoming relatable to all of us worldwide. One is certain to discover a motherly Mrs Bennet in Lajpat Nagar, a haughty Mr Darcy in Amrita Shergill Marg. How delightful therefore to indulge in imagining this church during the Sunday service (winter timing: 8.30am). It might then be packed with scores of pious Gurugramwale, patiently waiting for the sermon to conclude, leaving them free to finally exchange the week’s worth of news and gossip. Just as in Jane Austen novels.

PS: Photo shows Reverend Prateek Pillai, the church’s presbyter in-charge