page_title: Jonas Pilling
section_title: Deadlock at St Mark's
hierarchical_section_title: Jonas Pilling / Deadlock at St Mark's
caption_attribution_description: Interior of former church of St Mark, Old Leeds Road, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Built 1887, designed by architect William Swinden Barber (1832-1908). The building was deconsecrated and has been converted into an office block, but many interior features are still visible. Showing sculpture on north leg of chancel arch, viewed from south-west. An angel and trilobe fig leaves, representing the Trinity. All four angels are slightly different from each other. The trilobe fig leaves do not bear fruit on the north leg of the arch, where the angels are masculine.
context_page_description: Reverend Jonas Pilling was vicar of the former Church of St Mark, Old Leeds Road, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, from 1905 to 1926. He was the notorious subject of many newspaper articles about the fourteen-year dispute between Pilling and his congregation, the absence of churchwardens, other officials and choir, the dwindling of his congregation and the dereliction of the church building. This occurred in an industrial environment of great poverty, where there was "plenty of scope for church work." At the 1921 Bishop's Commission, he mentioned his fear of "plottings."
context_section_description: In 1907 there was a dispute between the churchwardens and the vicar Reverend Pilling. On Monday 6 May 1907, the Aberdeen Journal reported: 
  "After evensong at St Mark's Church, Huddersfield, last night, the whole of the voluntary Church officers – comprising churchwardens and sidesmen – walked out of the church in a body, all having resigned their positions owing to disputes with the vicar, Rev. J. Pilling, over questions of authority.  The retiring officers refused to stand again, and, although three vestry meetings have been had since Easter, no successors have been elected. The vicar's warden, Henry Kilburn, has received a letter from the secretary of the Diocese of Wakefield, advising the wardens that they must continue in office until their legal successors are appointed."
  
  The Leeds Mercury put it thus:
  "It is quite evident that after the archdeaconal visitation, St Mark's Church, Huddersfield will be without church officers, for at present there are no signs of an amicable settlement with respect to the alleged differences between the vicar (the Rev. J. Pilling) and some of his parishioners. The annual vestry last week ended in a deadlock, as the outgoing officers declined reappointment, and although the vicar nominated Mr J.W. Mather, the choirmaster, as his warden, the church officers objected, on the ground that he was a paid official. The parties are apparently at loggerheads, for Thursday's meetings, one convened by the vicar, and the other by the churchwardens, Messrs H. Kilburn and A. Lawton, ended without anything having been done. It is stated that the patron of the living has been appealed to, and also the rural dean. Will the Bishop interfere?  The vicar in conversation with a Press representative yesterday, when asked for his version of the affair, simply replied, "I have nothing to say on the matter," but he added that he had not read the report of the meeting called by the churchwardens, and he did not intend to do so. Mr H. Kilburn, the vicar's warden, would only state that he thought that sufficient publicity had been given to the state of affairs in the newspapers to justify the Bishop in holding an enquiry. At the meeting convened by the vicar, there was only a small attendance. The vicar presided, and amongst those present were the churchwardens, Captain Elcombe of the Church Army, and Mr J. Lockwood, a sidesman."
  
  On 23 April 1908 the Yorkshire Evening Post reported that the vicar was still unable to persuade parishioners to volunteer themselves as churchwardens, and that "from what transpired today, there seems but slight prospect of an immediate improvement in the situation." The vicar had given notice of the meeting at twelve noon that day, but his notice attracted only four reporters and one choir member. The vicar did not enter the vestry but called the chorister out into the churchyard and asked him to inform the reporters that there was to be no vestry meeting. The vestry and the church gates were locked by 12.15 pm. In June 1908 the choir could not get a conference with the vicar, so they "unanimously resolved they would go out in a body" and resigned in July. The Cornishman published the following explanation on 30 April 1908: 
  "A deplorable deadlock, which is having bad results for both the church and the people, exists in the parish of St Mark's Huddersfield, where the Rev. J. Pilling is vicar. At the annual vestry a year ago, a dispute arose between the vicar and the church officials. It was alleged that Mr Pilling in certain matters had ignored the churchwardens, that he had stopped the publication of the parish magazine, discontinued the morning Sunday school, and that he took no notice of the invitation extended to him to preside at a congregational tea. At the request of the vicar the Sunday school superintendent resigned, and his example was followed by other teachers. The churchwardens declined to be again nominated, and other members of the congregation refused to stand. Since that time the rev. gentleman has carried on the parish work practically single-handed, and has enlis
caption: Angel on chancel arch, directly above former site of pulpit of St Mark's
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