St John's Church () is a mid-nineteenth-century

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

garrison church in Jhelum Cantonment,

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, Pakistan, standing a short walk north of the

Jhelum River The Jhelum River is a major river in South Asia, flowing through India and Pakistan, and is the westernmost of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It originates at Verinag and flows through the Indian-administered territory of Jammu ...

and the old rail bridge. Constructed as a memorial to British soldiers killed during the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

, the building is among the earliest surviving Christian places of worship in northern Punjab and is listed by the provincial government as a protected heritage landmark.

History

The church's origins are inseparable from the

. On 7 July 1857, thirty-five men of the 24th Regiment of Foot were killed in Jhelum when part of the Bengal Native Infantry mutinied. Among the dead was Captain Francis Spring, the eldest son of Colonel William Spring.The London Gazette, 19 May 1858 http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/22141/pages/2492/page.pdf In the aftermath, the

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

n military set aside land inside the new cantonment for a memorial church. Salman Rashid's heritage survey for UNESCO records that the building was consecrated on 7 February 1857 by the Bishop of Madras, even though construction continued for several seasons. Provincial tourism records date the formal completion to 1860. A carved marble lectern inside the nave carries the names of all thirty-five men who died in the skirmish, turning the sanctuary into a regimental shrine as well as a parish church. During the early decades of Pakistan, the garrison congregation shrank and the building was locked; it then stood unused for roughly forty years. A

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ), commonly known as the Pak Army (), is the Land warfare, land service branch and the largest component of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The president of Pakistan is the Commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the army. The ...

supported conservation effort in 2007 resulted in reopening of the church for worship and for visitors. The church now falls under the Diocese of Rawalpindi in the united

Church of Pakistan The Church of Pakistan is a united Protestant church in Pakistan founded in 1970; it holds membership in the Anglican Communion, the World Communion of Reformed Churches,Database (9 February 2006)"Sialkot Diocese of the Church of Pakistan". R ...

and is also promoted by the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab as part of Jhelum's heritage trail.

Architecture

Although modest in size, St John’s exemplifies the Anglo-Gothic idiom that British military engineers favoured for cantonment churches across the Punjab plain in the 1850s. Rashid notes that "today one sees only the tall spire rising above the accretion of modern buildings", a landmark once framed by open meadows on the river bank. The rubble-stone walls are dressed with lime plaster; lancet windows, hood-moulds and buttresses echo contemporary garrison churches in

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

and

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

that sought to evoke English parish models. Academic surveys of colonial church design in Punjab describe these buildings as single-nave halls with hammer-beam roofs, pointed clerestory lights and small western towers that double as ventilators in the hot season, traits all present, though on a reduced scale, at Jhelum.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John's Church (Jhelum) Jhelum Church of Pakistan church buildings in Pakistan 1860 establishments in British India Tourist attractions in Jhelum 19th-century Anglican church buildings in Pakistan