The decision to form a Baptist Church had not been taken without much discussion and heart-searching. A Statistical Study of England and Wales in 1938⁸ had identified Chichester as one of the places which was then ‘over-churched’, having 22 churches⁹ for a population (in the 1931 census) of 14,902. Long before that (at the time of the 1914-18 war) a well-known Baptist, the Rev. J.H. Shakespeare, D.D. had advocated a ‘United Free Church of England’¹⁰ and many, including influential members of the Baptist Union, felt that new Baptist churches should only be established in places where there were no other Free Churches, or in new areas of population.

The Rev. John Grant, Minister of the Chichester Congregational Church was very involved in the ‘ecumenical movement’ and did not favour the formation of another central church in Chichester, though he recognised the need for a Free Church in the new housing area in the north-west of the City, known broadly as the Parklands area, and said more than once that if the Baptists did not seize up the opportunity, the Congregationalists must do so. The Rev. Platt, Minister of Southgate Methodist Church, Chichester, would have liked to see a ‘Baptist Section’ of the Methodist Church. Despite the reservations, both agreed, and the Chichester Free Church Council confirmed, that if a new Baptist Church could undertake to build on one of the new housing estates, that Council would support it. This was entirely in agreement with the views of the members of the new Church, who had always sought to avoid ‘competition’ between the churches and had worshipped in the centre of the City only until such time as they could build at Parklands. It proved to be another seven years before that could be accomplished.

⁸Arthur Black. Statistical Study of Free Church Provision and Membership in England and Wales to 1938
⁹Of the 22 churches, 12 (including the Cathedral) were Anglican, three Methodist and one each Congregational, Brethren, Salvation Army, Dependent, Quaker, Independent Calvinist and Unitarian. With one exception they practised infant or no baptism.
¹⁰Dr. J. H. Shakespeare. “The Churches at the Crossroads.” c. 1918