The Bridge Church (Kirribilli) is the Kirribilli location of The Bridge Church, meeting at 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 t ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

at 7–9 Broughton Street, Kirribilli, on the Lower North Shore of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. The Bridge Church (Kirribilli) meets in St John the Baptist Church and is part of 'The Bridge Church', which encompasses 3 locations, being Kirribilli,

Neutral Bay Neutral Bay is a suburb on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Neutral Bay is around 1.5 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of North Sydney Council. Neutral Bay takes ...

and

Macquarie Park Macquarie Park () is a suburb in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Macquarie Park is located 13 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Ryde ...

. As at January 2022, the Bridge Church congregation consists of around 1,250 people, (approximately 1,000 adults and 250 children) from a wide variety of backgrounds, married, single and young families.

Vision, Mission and Values

The vision for The Bridge Church is for their members to be a network of diverse communities of disciples, living for Jesus and loving like Jesus. The mission for The Bridge Church is to exist to make mature disciples who will innovatively take the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

to their neighbourhoods, their networks and the nations. The Bridge Church has 7 core values, all to the glory of God. They are to be: * Christ-centred * Bible-based * Prayerfully-dependent * Mission-minded * Servant hearted * Maturity-seeking * Church family The Bridge Church's desire is to see these seven core values expressed in all their gatherings, and in the personal lives of their members of The Bridge Church.

History

The Church of St John the Baptist was founded in 1884 within the Parish of Christ Church, Lavender Bay. It subsequently became a parish in 1902. The population of Milsons Point declined following commercial development of the area in the 1970s. In 1983 a Chinese/Cantonese speaking congregation based in the Cathedral decided to join the congregation of St John's. The finances improved and arrears of assessments were paid. The church was amalgamated with the Parish of Neutral Bay (St Augustine's) on 1 December 1989, and together they went by the name St John the Baptist Kirribilli. The size of the Chinese congregation grew sufficiently to regain the church's status as an independent provisional parish. In 1993 the congregation comprises approximately 10% local European residents and 90% Chinese from many parts of the Diocese. In 2007 the Chinese (Cantonese) congregation moved to

Artarmon Artarmon is a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 9 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Willoughby. History ...

. Bishop Glenn Davies invited Paul Dale to consider becoming curate in charge of St John's. In March 2011 a new evening congregation was planted at Christ Church, Lavender Bay and in 2016 this congregation moved to St Peter's Presbyterian Church Hall at McMahons Point. On Sunday 6 February 2005, a new evening service was started, called '6 for 6.15pm' with 42 people gathering to worship God. This was a church plant of

St Thomas' Anglican Church, North Sydney St Thomas' Anglican Church, North Sydney is a large Anglican church in Sydney's North Shore. It is located at the corner of Church and McLaren streets, close to the North Sydney central business district. The church is listed on the local gover ...

. This was the beginning of 'The Bridge Church', or as it was then known, 'Church by the Bridge'. In 2020, The Bridge Church and St Augustine, Neutral Bay were merged to form one parish. The Bridge Church now meets across three locations, being Kirribilli,

and

. In The Bridge Church building at Kirribilli, these gatherings take place at 8am, 10am, 5pm and 7pm. At the St Augustine's Neutral Bay site, these gatherings take place at 8am, 10am, 4pm and 6pm. At Macquarie Park, in the Trinity Chapel, these gatherings take place at 10:30am and 5:30pm.

Buildings

St John the Baptist, Kirribilli was designed by

Edmund Blacket Edmund Thomas Blacket (25 August 1817 – 9 February 1883) was an Australian architect, best known for his designs for the University of Sydney, St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney and St. Saviour's Cathedral, Goulburn. Arriving in Sydney from Eng ...

as a church school, in the Romanesque Revival style, and built in 1884. A vestry and sanctuary were added in 1900. The nearby kindergarten was built as a church hall in 1909. The church was listed on the

North Sydney Council North Sydney Council is a local government area on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, established on 29 July 1890 through the amalgamation of three boroughs. The area is bounded by Willoughby to the north and north-w ...

local government

heritage register This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many i ...

on 2 August 2013.

Ministry

The church runs "Carols Under The Bridge", located in Bradfield Park under the northern end of

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The view of the bridg ...

References

External links