St. James' Church is a Church of Ceylon church located in Nallur in northern

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

History

In 1817 the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

Church Mission Society (CMS) approved the establishment of

missions Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion * Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. On 20 December 1817 four clergymen - Joseph Knight, Samuel Lambrick, Robert Major and Benjamin Ward - and their wives left England and sailed to Ceylon on board the ''Vittoria''. They arrived in late June 1818. Knight went to Jaffna, Lambrick went to Colombo, Major and his wife went to Galle and Ward and his wife to Trincomalee. Knight started his missionary work in 1818 in Nallur. In 1820 Knight bought a mission house in Nallur to conduct regular services. An old, dilapidated Dutch church next to the mission house was handed over to the mission by the government in 1823. This church was the site of the Nallur Kandaswamy Temple before it was destroyed by the Portuguese. Part of the original Shivalingam of the Nallur Kandaswamy Temple was located in the Vicarage until 1995 when it was destroyed during the recapture of Jaffna by Sri Lanka armed forces and the platform where the shivalingam was mounted on can still be seen in the hallway of the vicarage. After extensive repairs this church was opened to the public for worship on 25 July 1828 (St. James' day). Bishop James Chapman

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

the church in 1847 and in 1849 a 60 feet tower was added. The church was declared an archaeological protected monument in December 2011.

References

1828 establishments in Ceylon Churches completed in 1828 Churches in Jaffna District Church of Ceylon church buildings in the Diocese of Colombo Archaeological protected monuments in Jaffna District 19th-century Anglican church buildings in Sri Lanka {{SriLanka-struct-stub