St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney
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St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney is the cathedral church of the Anglican diocese of Sydney, and the seat of the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of NSW, The Most Rev Dr Peter Jensen. The Dean since 2003 is his brother, the Very Rev. Phillip Jensen.
St Andrew's Cathedral located in the heart of the city of Sydney. It was ready for services and consecrated in 1868 making it the oldest cathedral in Australia. Joan Kerr describes it as "....a perfect example of the colonial desire to reproduce England in Australia in the mid nineteenth century". [1]
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[edit] Building and architecture
[edit] Macquarie and Greenway
The early Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, had grand plans for the city of Sydney. He foresaw that Sydney would grow into a large city requiring a large cathedral. With the architect Francis Greenway, who had been transported to Sydney for forgery, The Governor planned a church 200 feet square and probably with the seating and galleries facing inward from three sides. But this was never brought to fruition. Only a few foundations were laid before the plan was abandoned. Macquarie was severely criticised for planning beyond the colony's means.
[edit] Broughton and Hume
The Bishop William Grant Broughton, consecrated in 1836, had a new foundation stone laid in 1837. The plans, prepared by the architect James Hume, were of much more modest proportions and were for a traditional cruciform church in the gothic style. The designs, dating from the early phase of Gothic Revival architecture, did not show a great expertise in the handling of the particular architectural vocabulary. Only one notable section was completed, the façade of the south transept. However, the foundations were laid and some of the walls were constructed up to a height of about 15 feet.
[edit] Edmund T. Blacket
In 1842 Edmund Thomas Blacket presented himself to the Bishop with a letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury recommending his talent as an architect and equal facility in both the Classical and the Gothic style. He was eventually to become known as the Wren of Sydney, having designed two universities, three cathedrals and fifty or more parish churches as well as banks, offices bridges, mansions and countless shops, cottages and terraced houses. Blacket became the official Colonial Architect 1849-1854.
Blacket was an inventive and stylish Gothic Revival Architect who utilised the forms of English Medieval prototypes reproduced in the books of his architectural library to produce designs which, although archeologically "correct" are often highly original. This was just as well, because the task that he inherited from James Hume was not an easy one. It took some convincing to get the Bishop to accept his deviations from the original. The problem was, how to make a truly splendid and imposing cathedral on foundations which were only the size of a large English parish church. Taking into account what Hume had done and the fact that some of Hume's rather amateurish window tracery was already in place, Blacket designed the cathedral in the style known as Perpendicular Gothic, used extensively at the cathedrals of Canterbury, Winchester and York.
[edit] Perpendicular style
With the repetition of forms, the strongly vertical lines characteristic of Perpendicular Gothic, Blacket succeeded in creating a building which, despite its small size, is nevertheless imposing and of harmonious proportions. The western front with its layered decoration is a majestic composition, based loosely of that of York Minster. The strongly projecting rectangular buttresses, which transform by stages into lofty octagonally-sectioned pinnacles, and the complex molding around the portals casts varied shadows in the bright Australian sunlight. Kinsela describes it as “a grand façade with superb towers…Covered with a profusion of ornanament, blind traceries and tiny attached pinnacles, in a light-hearted yet elegant manner.”[2]
Bishop Broughton did not live to consecrate St Andrew's. He died while on a trip to England in 1853 and is buried at Canterbury Cathedral. The second Bishop of Sydney, Frederick Barker consecrated the completed building on St Andrew's Day, November 30th, 1868.
[edit] Interior
The interior is a harmonious composition in Perpendicular Gothic. Although the building is small, it is given a sense of grandeur by the proportions of the arcade and clerestory, the richness of the moldings, the loftiness of the hammerbeam roof with its blue and vermillion decoration, and the decorative details, which include carved stone ribbons around the nave piers, bearing the names of notables in the early Sydney church. The stone used throughout is Sydney sandstone. The Chancel has a newly-restored floor in ornate pattern set with marble and intaglio tiles in the Cosmati style by Fields of London, created under the direction of Gilbert Scott. The rest of the building is paved with encaustic tiles of red and black with small intaglio designs by Mintons of Stoke-on-Trent.
The reredos was commissioned by the third bishop of Sydney, Bishop Barry and carved of translucent cream English alabaster by the sculptor Earp, under the supervision of the well-known Gothic Revival architect, J. L. Pearson, 1886. The subject matter of the three pictorial panels, as originally created, were at the centre - the Crucifixion, to the left – the Resurrection and to the right – theAscension. To either side were the figures of Moses and Elijah. In 1887 there was objection at synod to the representational nature of the reredos and in particular to the central Crucifixion on the grounds that it might be seen as idolatorous. The Crucifixion was replaced, at the expense of the objectors, by the present scene of the Transfiguration.
The furniture of the chancel is of different dates, but for the most part in the Gothic style. The choir stalls, of dark English oak, are particularly fine, having large poppy heads, each richly carved with a different foliate design.
[edit] The windows
The lower stained glass windows are one of the earliest complete cycles of glass by Hardman of Birmingham and demonstrate the skilful employment of primary colour, elegant design and narrational intelligence that is typical of the work of John Hardman Powell. They represent the life and the parables of Jesus.
The seven-light, four-tiered east window is a complex composition showing scenes in the life of Christ at which the Apostle Andrew was present, such as the Feeding of the Five Thousand. The west window has tiers of Apostles. There was a dispute with the firm over the inclusion of Mary Magdalene among the male disciples which was resolved by painting a beard on Mary.
[edit] Orientation and reorientation
St Andrew's Cathedral is built to the cruciform shape traditional of Christian Churches and symbolic of the faith. The body of the cathedral or nave, with lower aisles on either side, is crossed by the transept, forming a chancel for the seating of clergy and choir at the eastern end. The sides of the choir are traditionally known as Cantoris, the side of the Precentor, or cantor, and Decani, the side of the Dean, the senior clerical appointee within the Cathedral. See Cathedral architecture and Cathedral diagram.
It is customary for cathedrals to be orientated on an East/West axis with the main door to the West and the Sanctuary to the East. St Andrew's conformed to that tradition. But Sydney's main thoroughfare, George Street, ran by the Eastern rather than the Western end. This made the main entrance less accessible and also meant that when an electric tram system was installed in the street, the noise frequently drowned out the Service of Holy Communion.
In 1941 the interior was therefore reoriented. A new raised chancel floor was built in the West end, the West door was permanently closed and the Reredos was placed immediately in front of it. All the internal fittings of the Chancel were relocated, the positioning of the Reredos right against the wall creating some extra space. There was a claim that the acoustics were improved but this is spurious. While on one hand, the trams would not have seemed so loud, being more remote, the effect on the internal acoustic was disastrous. A very large number of choristers were employed to make themselves heard.
Between 1999 and 2000 major conservation and restoration work was undertaken to restore the original internal layout, whereby the Sanctuary was relocated at the Cathedral's Eastern end. This was achieved under the Very Reverend Dean Boak Jobbins.
[edit] Changes
In line with the trend in the Anglican Church in Sydney for services of an informal, unstructured nature, it was decided that the Communion Table should be placed in a more forward position in the Sanctuary and that it should be easily portable in order that it might be removed when not required for Holy Communion, to clear a space for presentations and musical performances. An new table, of a simple, square, modern design was installed. It was suggested by some traditional Anglicans that the older table with its ornate carving, should be retained in its usual place in front of the reredos. It is not unusual for cathedrals in England, because of their vast size, to have tables in two positions. But as this was not the case in Sydney, it was decided to abandon the old table, rather than maintaining it at the risk of it being associated with the "High Altar" of the Roman Catholic Church (The Table in an Anglican Church in Sydney must be of wood and be able to be moved).
The reredos is in five sections, parallel with the five inner lights of the large seven-light east window above it. The removal of the Communion Table that was formally part of this visual and liturgical unit has left a visually empty space. Its place is now occupied by one of the treasures of the cathedral, the Great Bible of 1539, (printed at the date when Henry VIII ordered that every church should have a bible in the English language.) This is in keeping with the Sydney Anglican Church's emphasis on the Word of God as providing all that is needed for Salvation.
The emphasis of Sydney Anglican theology on a firm understanding of the Scripture as against experiential spirituality is confirmed by the apparent precedence of the Book over the Sacrament. Unfortunately, the antiquity of the particular bible displayed is such that it must needs be enshrined within a glass case, giving an impression that the book itself is an object of veneration. This is, of course, accidental and completely out of keeping with Sydney Anglicanism.
[edit] Music at St Andrew's Cathedral
[edit] The Organ
In 1866 an organ by the famous English organ builders, William Hill and Sons was installed with a case to Edmund Blacket's design and richly decorated organ pipes. It was placed in the South transept. It was joined in 1932 by an instrument by John Whitely, which was placed opposite in the North transept. In the 1950s the instruments were amalgamated to be played from a single console, thus constituting the largest church organ in Australia. There has been a further rationalisation of the organs in the recent restoration and the Whitely has gone from the North transept gallery, thus revealing one of the Cathedral's finest Hardman windows.
The first organist of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, was Montague Younger.
There are regular Friday afternoon recitals involving Australian and International organists commencing at 1:10pm (usually for 30 or 40 minutes), these recitals have now been going for more than 40 years.
[edit] The Choir
In 1885 St Andrew's Cathedral School was founded by the third Bishop of Sydney, Bishop Barry, for the purpose of providing choristers to sing the daily services at the Cathedral. For many years the enrolment stood at forty-six boys and the Headmaster was also the Master of Choristers and Precentor of the Cathedral. The school began to expand in 1941 and for many years in the latter part of the Twentieth Century the enrolment stood at 700 and catered for boys from Years 3 to 12. In the 1990s the school changed its policy to include girls.
Under the baton of Michael Deasey, the choir achieved an international reputation. In 2005 they were invited to Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral to deputise while the choirs of those churches were in recess..
In 2004 the present Dean moved to abolish the traditional Anglican settings of canticles and psalms from the repertoire of the Cathedral Choir, in keeping with the inclination better to rationalise the worship with evangelical Protestant patterns. This has been met by some controversy.
The present Director of Music is Mr Ross Cobb. The choir sings at the 10.30am Sunday Church[1] service and two weekday services. There is a Girl's Ensemble from the Cathedral School and an independent group of adults called The Cathedral Singers. [2]
[edit] The Bells
St Andrew's has a peal of ten bells cast by John Taylor and Co. of Loughborough in England and installed in 1965 to the memory of Ernest Samuel Trigg. The tenor weighs 29 1/4 cwt and the lightest 6 1/2 cwt. The bells have since been augmented with three more. They are rung each Sunday at 9:45am.
[edit] Specifications
[edit] Significant Dates
[edit] Dimensions
- Length (internal) - 48 metres (160 ft)
- Width - 17.6 metres (58 ft)
- Width at transept - 33.3 metres 110 ft)
- Height - 29.7 metres (68 ft)
- Height of western towers - 39.3 metres (130 ft
[edit] Materials
- Building - Sydney sandstone
- Roof - Welsh slate
- Roof timber -
- Lower windows, east and west windows, transept windows, - Hardman of Birmingham, 1861-8
- Nave clerestory windows - designer, Norman Carter, 1953-4
- Chancel and transept clerestory windows - various, including Lyon and Cottier, Falconer and Ashwin and English firms.
- Floor - Minton intaglio tiles
- Chancel floor - Cosmateque tiles by Fields of London
- Pulpit and Choir stalls - English Oak
- Reredos - English Alabaster
- Pulpit- Otago sandstone and Gabo Island granite
[edit] References
- The Venerable S.M.Johnstone, The Book of St Andrew's Cathedral Sydney, revised 1968, Angus and Robertson
- Joseph Kinsela, St Andrew's Cathedral, a pictorial History and Guide, 1986, Argyle Press, ISBN 0-909625-95-6
- Joan Kerr, Our Great Victorian Architect, Edmund Thomas Blacket, 1983, National Trust of Australia, ISBN 0-909723-17-6
- First organist of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, Montague Younger
[edit] See also
- Anglican Diocese of Sydney
- Gothic Revival
- Cathedral architecture of Western Europe
- Augustus Welby Pugin
- John Powell
- Poor Man's Bible
[edit] External links
- St Andrew's Cathedral Website
- Anglican Diocese of Sydney Website
- St Andrew's Cathedral Choir Website
- The Cathedral Singers Website
- St Andrew's Cathedral School Website
- History and Specifications of the Cathedral Organs plus Organ Recital schedule
[edit] Picture gallery
 Very Revd W.M.Cowper, Dean 1858-1902 |
 Reflection in an offic block |
 looking east |
 across the transept |
 the nave |
 the hammer-beam roof |
 the south aisle |
 Chair and memorial of Bp. Broughton |
 Bp Broughtons chair |
 floral arrangement |
 Memorial hatchment to Edmund Blacket |
 The Choir rehearsing at Canterbury, 2005 |
 Chapter House stairs |
