St John's Cathedral is the central church of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane (a geographical area extending west to the Northern Territory and South Australian border, south to the N.S.W. border and north to Bundaberg) and the Anglican Province of Queensland (an area covering all of Queensland and the Northern Territory including the Torres Strait Islands).

Some definitions

The Church is more than a building. The church is a community of people striving to live out the will of God on earth through word and action.

The Diocese is an area administered by a Bishop who is the spiritual leader of both clergy and people in that place.

The Archbishop presides over three or more dioceses: in Australia, the Archbishops are based in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth

A Cathedral is so named because it contains the cathedra, or the seat of the Bishop. The word Cathedra is from the Greek and Latin, meaning 'bishop's seat'.

The canopy over the Cathedra in St John's Cathedral is carved by Queenslander, Colin Blumson Jnr, using Queensland Maple. The spire is 20ft high.

A Saint is a person who is recognised by the Christian community, after death, as having lived an exceptionally holy life, often having had good influences upon other people.

CE means Common Era. We use that term now instead of AD (Anno Domini - the year of Our Lord) because our community is multi-faith.

Christian beginnings

After the first Easter, the early Church spread the good news of new life (salvation) through Jesus Christ, God's Son.

For 300 years Christians suffered persecution at the hands of the Roman rulers. But in 312CE the Roman Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan declaring that Christianity be an accepted religion without fear of persecution.

By the end of 2nd century CE Christianity had spread to Britain, mostly because of Roman occupation. In 314 CE there were bishops in the church in Britain. We know this because in that year three British bishops from the roman towns of London, York and probably Lincoln, attended the Council of Bishops at Arles in France. As early as 397 CE Ninian brought Christianity to the north of England and to Scotland. He had a remarkable white stone church building. Around 432 CE, Patrick was taking Christianity to Ireland.

If you look at the St Ninian window in St John's Cathedral you will see the words Candida Casa - 'white house'.

In the fifth century CE, the Romans abandoned Britain to go to defend Rome against the invading barbarians from northern Europe. Britain, too, was invaded by the Saxons and Jutes, but Christianity survived. Pope Gregory sent Augustine from Rome to England in 597 CE and he became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Irish Christian scholar Columba went to Iona in 563 CE to establish a monastery from which he sent missionaries to northern Scotland and England, The other famous monastery established at this time was at Lindisfarne. Missionaries from these two monasteries travelled throughout Britain in the 7th & 8th centuries.

Cuthbert, Aidan, Chad and Oswald were four saints from this period. They are represented in the windows of St John's Cathedral Southern Chapels, together with other early Christian leaders and saints: Hilda, Augustine, Theodore, Dunstan, Ninian, Patrick, Martin, David, Etheldreda.

The Reformation which swept through much of Europe in the 15th & 16th centuries left the church divided. The church in England split with the Church of Rome at the time of Henry V111. People were protesting about errors that had crept into the church over the centuries, and so were called Protestants. The church in England retained many catholic practices and so could say then, as the Anglican church can say now, that it is Catholic, Reformed, Protestant and Apostolic.

Colonial beginnings

The original European settlement in Australia was the result of a British Government decision to transport convicts to its far-off colony in New South Wales.

The Anglican Church was represented in the first fleet in 1788 by the Rev'd Richard Johnson who cared for the spiritual welfare of 1100 convicts and soldiers. He held the first church service at Port Jackson (Sydney) on 3 February 1788. The first celebration of the Holy Communion was held two weeks later on 17 Feb 1788. The first church building was not completed in Sydney until 1793. It cost 67pounds 12 shillings and 11 pence ha'penny and was paid for by Johnson himself. He was later followed by the Rev'd Samuel Marsden.

Church services in Australia reflected the Church of England of the day and followed British traditions dating back to early centuries of Christianity, Medieval Catholicism and the European Reformation.

Brisbane beginnings

In 1829 The Rev'd John Vincent was the first chaplain sent to the Brisbane settlement from N.S.W. The Anglican Church throughout the colony was at that time part of the Diocese of Calcutta.

In 1843 the Rev'd John Gregor dedicated a converted carpenter's shed as the first Anglican Church building in what we now know as Queensland. It was dedicated in the name of St John the Evangelist - the dedication of our present cathedral. The site was bounded by North Quay, George, Adelaide and Queen Streets.

By 1850 Brisbane was a part of the new Diocese of Newcastle (NSW). In that year, the foundation stone was laid on an adjacent site, for the first Church building. In 1854 it was completed and consecrated as the church of St John the Evangelist. This site is now known as Queen's Park.

A plaque in the ground at Queen's Park, marks the position of the altar in this church, known as the Pro-Cathedral.

With the proclamation of the separate colony of Queensland in 1859, the new Diocese of Brisbane was formed with Bishop Tufnell, as its first Bishop. St John's church now became the pro-cathedral i.e. a church building not actually dedicated as a cathedral, but doing the job of a cathedral.

The Deanery, part of the present cathedral precinct, was built in 1853.

The proclamation of the separate Colony of Queensland in 1859 was made from the verandah of this house. It became the temporary residence of the first Governor of Queensland until Government House was completed in 1862. The building was later acquired by the church around 1899, when the present cathedral was being planned for this site.

The Deanery can be viewed from the cathedral precinct.

St John's beginnings

In the 1890's, the government resumed the site on which the pro-cathedral stood. Bishop Webber, the third Bishop of Brisbane, set about finding a new site for a cathedral. In 1899 he acquired the present site. There was already a fine house on the site, built in 1853, and this later became the Deanery. (see above) Bishop Webber commissioned the esteemed British church architect John Loughborough Pearson to design a new cathedral for Brisbane.

At Federation in 1901, Queensland was proclaimed as a separate state. In that same year, the Foundation Stone for St John's Cathedral was laid by the Duke of Cornwall and York on 22 May 1901 after he had attended the Federation celebrations in Melbourne. Stonework commenced in 1906, and the eastern section was consecrated in 1910.

Foundation Stone laid by the Duke of Cornwall & York (later King George V) can be seen in the ambulatory.

The Great Depression in the 1930's and the two World Wars halted any further progress. Two further bays in the nave were completed in 1968, and the present third and final stage of construction was begun in 1989. The target date for the completion of the West End of the building is 2006. This beautiful gothic-revival cathedral will be finished one hundred years after building began.

Related points of interest in St John's Cathedral

The Very Rev'd David Thomas, Dean of Brisbane and Mrs Lesley Peardon, December 2002.