![Photograph of the Holy Trinity](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Photograph_of_the_Holy_Trinity..jpg)
Trinity Church Adelaide, formerly known as Holy Trinity Church and later Trinity City, is an Australian evangelical
Anglican church located at 88
North Terrace in the city of
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
. Established in 1836, it is one of the earliest churches in the
colony of South Australia
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...
.
History
![Adelaide North Tce 1839](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Adelaide_North_Tce_1839.jpg)
Holy Trinity Church was established in 1836, and has been of great significance from the days of the earliest settlers in the first city in South Australia.
[ It is also historically significant in that it contains elements of the earliest surviving Anglican church building in South Australia. Of special note is the ]William IV
William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...
window that was brought to Adelaide in 1836.
The land on which the church stands was donated by Pascoe St Leger Grenfell
Pascoe St Leger Grenfell (5 November 1798 — 27 March 1879) was a British businessman and patron, and a key backer of the South Australian Company. He was a committee member of the South Australian Church Society, and is known for donation of ...
along with 40 acres of country land for a cemetery and "glebe
Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...
" lands. Pascoe St Leger Grenfell
Pascoe St Leger Grenfell (5 November 1798 — 27 March 1879) was a British businessman and patron, and a key backer of the South Australian Company. He was a committee member of the South Australian Church Society, and is known for donation of ...
, the holder of a preliminary land order, Raikes Currie
Raikes Currie (15 April 1801 – 16 October 1881) was Member of Parliament (MP) for Northampton from 1837 to 1857. He was a partner of the bank Curries & Co, along with his father, Isaac Currie, in Cornhill, City of London, and had several in ...
and the Reverend Sir Henry Robert Dukinfield of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) is a United Kingdom-based charitable organization (registered charity no. 234518).
It was first incorporated under Royal Charter in 1701 as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Part ...
in Foreign Parts (SPG) who held the collective funds and, thirdly, the men to whom they were transferring their powers, namely James Hurtle Fisher
Sir James Hurtle Fisher (1 May 1790 – 28 January 1875) was a lawyer and prominent South Australian pioneer. He was the first Resident Commissioner of the colony of South Australia, the first Mayor of Adelaide and the first resident Sou ...
, Osmond Gilles
__NOTOC__
Osmond Gilles (24 August 1788 – 25 September 1866) was a settler, pastoralist, mine owner and the Colony of South Australia’s first colonial treasurer.
Born in London of Huguenot descent, in 1816 he went into partnership with Phil ...
and Charles Mann. Fisher was to be resident commissioner in South Australia of the Colonisation Commission, having responsibility independent of the governor for the administration of land in the new colony; Gilles was to be the treasurer and Mann the advocate general or principal legal officer of the colony. Grenfell transferred control over order no. 171 for a town acre
In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid.
Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogona ...
and over 40 acres of country land to be selected in conjunction with the town acre, later known as Trinity Gardens
Trinity Gardens is a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. The name is taken from '' Holy Trinity Church''.
History
On 28 March 1840 the trustees of Holy Trinity – Osmond Gilles, Charles Mann and James Hurtle Fisher – were given approximat ...
. The conveyance did not have to specify that Currie and Dukinfield hand over money and the portable church, but it may be presumed they did so — alternatively they may have entrusted these resources to John Morphett
Sir John Morphett (4 May 1809 – 7 November 1892) was a South Australian pioneer, landowner and politician. His younger brother George Morphett was also an early settler in South Australia.
Early life
Morphett was born in London, th ...
, appointed as SPG's attorney in the colony. The objects of the trust were to use the town acre as a site for "the erection of a church where Divine Service could be celebrated according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England". The same acre was also to provide space for a schoolroom and a parsonage and garden for the minister of the church. The country land was to provide six to eight acres for a cemetery and the remainder to be "glebe
Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...
land", in the familiar phrase of the Church of England, to provide income for the support of the minister.
The church was built in three main stages. It was originally planned that the church would be a prefabricated building imported from England;[Dickey, B: Holy Trinity Adelaide 1836-1988: the history of a city church, Trinity Church Trust Inc., 1988] however, when the prefabricated building arrived from England badly damaged, it was decided instead to build a stone church, Henry J. Moseley the builder. Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Hindmarsh laid the foundation stone on 28 January 1838 and the church opened in about August that year, within two years of the settlement of Adelaide (see History of Adelaide
This article details the History of Adelaide from the first human activity in the region to the 20th century. Adelaide is a New town, planned city founded in 1836 and the capital of South Australia.
Aboriginal settlement
The Adelaide plains ...
). The building quickly became a landmark with its "peaked cap" top tower and the Vulliamy clock. (Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy 1780–1854, was the clockmaker to King William IV and Queen Adelaide.)
In 1844 the church was closed for repairs and the clock was removed for safekeeping. The body of the church was rebuilt and re-roofed and the tower lost its peaked cap. It reopened in August 1845. When Bishop Short arrived in 1847, Holy Trinity assumed many of the functions of a cathedral and was - until other congregations (especially Christ Church, North Adelaide
Christ Church, North Adelaide is an Anglican church on Acre 745 which lays between Jeffcott Street and 36-40 Palmer Place, , South Australia, Australia. The foundation stone was laid on 1 June 1848 by Augustus Short, the first Bishop of Adelaide ...
) were established — the place of worship for the governors, many of the colony’s prominent families and the military.
In 1878, there was a proposal to rebuild when some money was subscribed, but this did not take place until the congregation decided in the mid-1880s to completely rebuild the church to a design by the prominent architect Edward John Woods
Edward John Woods F.R.I.B.A. (1839 – 5 January 1916) was a prominent architect in the early days of South Australia.
History
Woods was born in London and educated at several private schools, then, deciding to become an architect, served ...
, using the mellow sandstone which eventually weathered to match the original limestone. It was around this time that the present name of "Holy Trinity" became current.
The hall and the rectory are also significant features in the precinct. The hall was built in 1887 using a donation from a parishioner. The original rectory was a prefabricated "Manning" building which arrived in better condition than the church. It was replaced by the present building in 1851 and was the home of seven successive incumbents.
The Revd Lance Shilton, later Dean of Sydney, was rector of Holy Trinity from 1957 to 1973.
After a review was undertaken, a 10-year restoration project was begun on the church building, and parish hall, and car park in 2016, with financial support from Adelaide City Council.
Names
Now known as Trinity Church Adelaide, the church was previously known as Trinity City, and before that Holy Trinity Church.
Ministry
Trinity Church is a large evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
and conservative Anglican church. Its main campus is adjacent to the University of South Australia
The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australi ...
(Uni SA), City West campus. Through its involvement with the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students
The Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) is an evangelical Christian parachurch organisation that aims to encourage university students to believe in and follow Jesus Christ. It is affiliated with, and in 1947 was a founding mem ...
on tertiary campuses it also has links to its students at Adelaide University
The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...
and the Uni SA City campuses. Members of Trinity City Church are also involved in the Church Missionary Society
The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...
(CMS) and Scripture Union
Scripture Union (SU) is an international, interdenominational, evangelical Christian organization. It was founded in 1867, and works in partnership with individuals and churches across the world. The organization's stated aim is to use the Bible t ...
. Trinity has Sunday school for children in primary school, a youth group for high school students, a young adults group, a weekday women's meeting group, a large number of small Bible study groups and various other groups.
Trinity Church is part of the Adelaide diocese
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...
and has an increasing number of locally trained staff, particularly trainees through the Ministry Training Strategy and students of the Bible College of South Australia. In 2007 Trinity Church was involved in initiating "Equip", a training program for Evangelical Anglican churches in South Australia. This ceased in 2016.
Trinity Church has 13 daughter churches:
* Trinity Church Aldgate, in the Adelaide Hills
* Trinity Church Brighton, in the Adelaide sea-side suburb of Hove, South Australia
Hove is a coastal suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is situated north of Brighton, west of Warradale, and south of North Brighton. Running along the west of the suburb is the Esplanade, a street with numerous townhouses with views of the ...
* Trinity Church Campbelltown, in Campbelltown, South Australia
Campbelltown is a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. The population of the area was 7,003 in 2006. It is bordered in the north-west by the River Torrens, a river that is surrounded by parks and smaller creeks. Campbelltown is 8.7 km north ...
* Trinity Church Colonel Light Gardens, Colonel Light Gardens, South Australia
Colonel Light Gardens is a suburb located within the Australian City of Mitcham in the greater Adelaide region, approximately south of the Adelaide city centre. The area is . Planned as a garden suburb, it is known for wide, tree-lined streets, ...
* Trinity Church Golden Grove, in Golden Grove
* Trinity Church Lockleys, in Lockleys, South Australia
Lockleys is an inner western suburb of Adelaide, in the City of West Torrens.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data from May 2021 revealed that Adelaide's western suburbs had the lowest unemployment rate in South Australia.
History
The area ...
* Trinity Church Modbury, in a suburb of Tea Tree Gully Council, Modbury, South Australia
Modbury is a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of Tea Tree Gully. Modbury is located at the end of the Adelaide O-Bahn and is home to the Tea Tree Plaza shopping complex and a Hospital.
It was named Modbury by R. S. Kelly, on 1 ...
* Trinity Church Mount Barker, in the outer regional centre of Mount Barker, South Australia
Mount Barker is a city in South Australia. Located approximately 33 kilometres (21 miles) from the Adelaide city centre, it is home to 16,629 residents. It is the seat of the District Council of Mount Barker, the largest town in the Adelaide Hi ...
* Trinity Church Pooraka, in Pooraka, South Australia
Pooraka is a suburb in Adelaide, South Australia. It is 12 kilometres north of the central business district.
History
Pooraka was originally a subdivision of section 97 of the Hundred of Yatala, the latter spanning from Grand Junction Road, at G ...
* Trinity Church Tonsley, in Tonsley, South Australia
Tonsley is a southern suburb of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia.
History
The suburb of Tonsley was created on 27 January 2017 by dividing the suburb of Clovelly Park in half. The southern part of the suburb was separated from Cl ...
* Trinity Church Unley, in Unley
Unley is an inner-southern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, within the City of Unley. The suburb is the home of the Sturt Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Unley neighbours Adelaide Park Lands, Fullar ...
* Trinity Church Victor Harbor, in Victor Harbor
* Trinity Church Woodcroft, in Morphett Vale, South Australia
Morphett Vale is a southern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of Onkaparinga. It is the largest suburb in the state, with a population of more than 23,000 and an area of 12.76 km2, followed by Paralowie with nearly 10,000 fe ...
Heritage listings
State
The building was listed on the South Australian Heritage Register
The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. ...
on 11 September 1986.
National
The building was listed on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate on 21 October 1980. The listing described both the building and its significance as follows:
The first church in South Australia. The original structure built 1838, rebuilt and enlarged 1844-45 rebuilt 1888 (raised tower and extensions E J Woods arch; only the lower parts of the present nave and tower date from 1838 (foundation stone laid 26 January 1838). The clock was made in 1836 for South Australia by Vulliamy, clockmaker to King William IV. The church includes the William IV Window, supposed to be the earliest window in South Australia, having been brought out in 1836 with the prefabricated structure intended as the first church.
Historically very significant as it contains elements of the earliest surviving ecclesiastical building in South Australia. The church has been associated with many important events since the first years of colony. Of special note is the William IV window which was brought to Adelaide in the first year of the colony. Probably the oldest surviving window in South Australia.
References
*
External links
Official website
{{Anglican Church in Australia
Anglican churches in South Australia
Churches in Adelaide
Gothic Revival architecture in Adelaide
Gothic Revival church buildings in Australia
South Australian Heritage Register
South Australian places listed on the defunct Register of the National Estate