St Paul's Church is an

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 in the suburb of

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Canberra, Australia Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The c ...

. Founded in 1939, it is part of the

Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn The Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn is one of the 23 dioceses of the Anglican Church of Australia. The diocese has 60 parishes covering most of south-east New South Wales, the eastern Riverina and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It st ...

. It is listed in the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...

Heritage Register as an "...excellent example of an Inter-War Gothic church with Art Deco influences". It was the first place in Australia to install a combination organ and has the only unrestricted peal of bells in the

. It was the first Anglican church to be built following the foundation of Canberra as the national capital ( St John's in

Reid Reid is a surname of Scottish origin. It means "red". People with the surname * Alan Reid (disambiguation) * Alex Reid (disambiguation), includes Alexander Reid * Amanda Reid, Australian Paralympic athlete * Amanda Reid (taxonomist), Australia ...

having been consecrated in 1845, before Canberra's foundation) and is the first Anglican parish in South Canberra. It is situated on the corner of

Canberra Avenue Canberra Avenue is a major road in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. It is the primary link between the nation's capital and the city of Queanbeyan, New South Wales which lies on the Territory's eastern border. The route also passes his ...

and Captain Cook Crescent, opposite

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and the Manuka shops.

History

The parish was formed as a district of St John the Baptist Church in Reid in 1914, and a

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America) and occasionally abbreviated CGI is a bu ...

hall was erected on the south side of Canberra at Eastlake (later renamed Kingston) to serve the needs of the nearby workmen's camps. The hall was much used in the 1920s, and a regular congregation gathered there each Sunday with a Sunday school. In the 1930s, there was an active choir, football and cricket teams associated with the congregation. In 1933, a building fund was commenced for a permanent church on a new site. However, as that was during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, progress was slow. A design by Sydney architects Burcham Clamp and Son was approved in 1938 and W. J. Perry, a parishioner, successfully tendered to construct it. The foundation stone for the new church was laid by the

Governor-General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

, Baron Gowrie, on 11 December 1938. The church was dedicated on 6 August 1939, five days after the 25th anniversary of the holding of the first Anglican service in the St Paul's Hall at Kingston. It was the first Anglican church to be built in the district since the 1840s. Initially St Paul's was part of the parish of St John's; the parish of St Paul, Canberra, was proclaimed formally on 26 March 1950. Neville Chynoweth (later the Bishop of

Gippsland Gippsland is a rural region that makes up the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains to the rainward (southern) side of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers ...

) was the rector from 1971 to 1974. An organ loft was built in 1988 for

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visit.

Architecture

The church is built of red brick in a style that blends

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

and

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

. The original structure included only the nave but has since been enlarged twice. In 1956 a new sanctuary and unusual bell tower were added. In 2001 two more bays were added to the nave, making it the largest Anglican church in Canberra. Its size and location, as well as the absence of an Anglican cathedral in the national capital, mean that it is often called upon to host major diocesan and national services as well as its parish functions.

Bells

The church tower contains the only

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

change ringing Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes". This can be by method ringing in which the ringers commit to memor ...

bells in the Australian Capital Territory. St Paul's is the only representative from the territory in

the Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers The Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers, known as ANZAB, is the organisation responsible for the promotion of English-style "full circle ringing" – namely change ringing and method ringing in bell towers with a peal of bells ...

. The eight bells came from a variety of sources, including several cast especially in England and were installed in 2003.

Organ

The first organ was installed in 1970, the first three-manual organ in Canberra, built primarily from second hand pieces and with many missing pipes. After significant damage due to rain the organ was moved and greatly renovated in 1990. The church now boasts the first combination (or hybrid) organ in Australia, in which the three manual

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

has been substantially augmented by custom digital electronic ranks. "It has 24 pipe stops and 34 electronic, for a total of 57 stops (one stop contains both an electronic and a pipe rank)." In 2009 a new four manual console was installed. In 2012 further enhancements were made to the organ, including the addition of the Trumpets Royal stop and the installation of a new sound box and further pipe ranks for the choir division.

Bibliography

* *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pauls Churches in Canberra Churches completed in 1939 20th-century Anglican church buildings Australian Capital Territory Heritage Register Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn