Saint Matthew is a church on the island of
Saint Helena
Saint Helena (, ) is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory.
Saint Helena is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km ...
in the South Atlantic Ocean, and is part of the
Diocese of St Helena
The Diocese of Saint Helena is an Anglican diocese within the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. It covers the islands of Saint Helena and Ascension in the Atlantic Ocean and was created in 1859. St Paul's Cathedral is on Saint Helena.
Histor ...
. It is situated in Hutt's Gate in the
Longwood district. The church opened in 1862. It is designated as a Grade II listed building.
[Land Planning and Development Control Ordinance]
Appendix 3: Listed Buildings
The church was reportedly in a state of disrepair during
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and was completely rebuilt after.
[
]
Local history
On leaving the University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
in 1676, Edmond Halley
Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720.
From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Hal ...
visited Saint Helena and set up an observatory with a aerial telescope
An aerial telescope is a type of very long focal length refracting telescope, built in the second half of the 17th century, that did not use a tube. Instead, the objective was mounted on a pole, tree, tower, building or other structure on a swive ...
with the intention of studying stars from the Southern Hemisphere.Gazetteer - p. 7. MONUMENTS IN FRANCE - page 338
The site of this telescope is near the church. The 680m high hill there is named for him and is called Halley's Mount.
Nearby is
Napoleon's grave, where the former French Emperor was buried on his death in 1821. His remains were exhumed in 1840 and returned to France.
Parish
The
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
of St Matthew (one of three parishes on the island) has one daughter church, Saint Mark's in Longwood, and a congregation at
Levelwood with no church.
See also
*
Saint James' Church - the oldest Anglican church south of the Equator, situated in Jamestown
*
Saint Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...
- the cathedral church of Saint Helena, built in 1851, which replaced another early church on the island
*
Saint John's Church - another church built in 1862 on the island
References
External links
Diocese of Saint HelenaParish of St Matthew
Church buildings in Saint Helena
Parishes of Saint Helena
Churches completed in 1862
Grade II listed buildings in Saint Helena
1862 establishments in the British Empire
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