St James' Church, Sydney | |
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St James, King Street | |
![]() St James' Church in about 1890, by Henry King | |
Location in the Sydney central business district | |
33°52′10″S 151°12′40″E / 33.8694°S 151.2111°E | |
Location | 173 King Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales |
Country | Australia |
Denomination | Anglican Church of Australia |
Churchmanship | Anglo-Catholic |
Website | St James' |
History | |
Status | Parish church |
Founder(s) | Governor Macquarie |
Dedication | St James |
Consecrated | 11 February 1824Samuel Marsden | by
Architecture | |
Architect(s) | |
Style | Georgian |
Groundbreaking | 7 October 1819 |
Administration | |
Diocese | Sydney |
Parish | St James', King Street |
Clergy | |
Rector | Christopher Waterhouse |
Laity | |
Director of music | Warren Trevelyan-Jones |
Organist(s) | Marko Sever |
Official name | St. James' Anglican Church; St James' Church |
Type | State heritage (built) |
Criteria | a., b., c., d., e., f. |
Designated | 3 September 2004[1] |
Reference no. | 01703 |
Type | Church |
Category | Religion |
Builders | Convict labour |
St James' Church, commonly known as St James', King Street, is an Australian heritage-listed Anglican parish church located at 173 King Street, in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales. Consecrated in February 1824 and named in honour of St James the Great, it became a parish church in 1835. Designed in the style of a Georgian town church by the transported convict architect Francis Greenway during the governorship of Lachlan Macquarie, St James' is part of the historical precinct of Macquarie Street which includes other early colonial era buildings such as the World Heritage listed Hyde Park Barracks.
The church remains historically, socially and architecturally significant. The building is the oldest one extant in Sydney's inner city region. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 3 September 2004;[1] and was listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate.
The church has maintained its special role in the city's religious, civic and musical life as well as its close associations with the city's legal and medical professions through its proximity to the law courts and Sydney Hospital. Its original ministry was to the convict population of Sydney and it has continued to serve the city's poor and needy in succeeding centuries.
Worship at St James' is in a style commonly found in the High Church and moderate Anglo-Catholic traditions of Anglicanism. It maintains the traditions of Anglican church music, with a robed choir singing psalms, anthems and responses in contrast to the great majority of churches in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney where services are generally celebrated in styles associated with Low Church and Evangelical Christian practices. The teaching at St James' has a more liberal perspective than most churches in the diocese on issues of gender and the ordination of women.