St Peter's Church, Eastern Hill

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Church in Australia

St Peter's Church
St Peter's Eastern Hill
St Peter's Church tower

Address	Corner of Albert and Gisborne Streets, East Melbourne, Victoria
Country	Australia
Denomination	Anglican
Churchmanship	Anglo-Catholic
Membership	Anglican Church of Australia
Website	stpeters.org.au
History
Status	Church
Founded	18 June 1846 (1846-06-18)
Founder(s)	Charles La Trobe
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Architectural type	Church
Years built	1846 – 1876
Administration
Diocese	Melbourne
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Michael Bowie
Assistant priest(s)	Kathryn Bellhouse Greg Davis Ken Letts Roger Prowd Pirrial Clift Graeme Brennan
Laity
Director of music	Rhys Arvidson (acting)
Organist(s)	Rhys Arvidson

St Peter's Church, Eastern Hill is an Anglican church located on the corner of Albert and Gisborne Streets, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Part of the Diocese of Melbourne, the administration of the parish dates from 1847 when letters patent of Queen Victoria declaring the city status of Melbourne were read on the steps of St Peter's in 1848. The parish is known to belong to the Anglo-Catholic tradition.

St Peter's central position in Melbourne means it is able to extend a number of ministries from the parish including a hospital chaplain, university chaplain and parliamentary chaplain. The church is also the location of a breakfast program for Melbourne's inner-city homeless.

Location

The church is located on the corner of Albert and Gisborne Streets on the eastern hill of Melbourne and, on one side, is opposite St Patrick's Cathedral, the Roman Catholic cathedral. On the other side it is opposite the Eastern Hill Fire Station. Although the church is located close to the city centre it draws parishioners and visitors from all over Melbourne and internationally.

History

St Peter's is the oldest Anglican church standing on its original site in the inner city area. The foundation stone was laid by Charles La Trobe on 18 June 1846. The building was first used for services in 1847 even though the first part was not completed until 1848. During the gold rush years, around 400 baptisms and a similar number of weddings took place each year. The building was extended in 1854 to bring its seating capacity up to 1050, much of this space was in galleries that were removed in 1896. The last extensions to the building took place in 1876. The first vicarage (1849) and schoolbuilding stood on land subsequently purchased by the State Parliament in 1884, following which the present vicarage and a new school building (now Keble House) were built.

Under Henry Handfield, the longest-serving of the 19th-century vicars (vicar 1854-1900), St Peter's developed a reputation for good choral music and increasing involvement in social outreach in the inner city, especially when the Sisters of the Holy Name commenced working within the parish boundaries in the 1880s. At this time St Peter's profile was that of a very restrained high church tradition, established mainly through teaching in sermons. The opera singer Nellie Melba had organ lessons at the church as a schoolgirl. The novelist Henry Handel Richardson worshipped at St Peter's and fictionalised this part of her life in an episode in The Getting of Wisdom.

In 1900, Ernest Selwyn Hughes (vicar 1900-26) stamped the parish with an explicit Anglo-Catholic identity, introducing a High Mass as the main Sunday liturgy, along with vestments and incense. His mild Christian Socialism was developed by his successor, Farnham Edward Maynard (1926–64), who emphasised a sometimes radical message through publications and radio broadcasts. At his instigation the Brotherhood of St Laurence, then a small religious community, came to work in the Fitzroy part of the parish in 1933 and has developed in different ways to contribute to Melbourne's social conscience. The Catholic and inclusive attitudes of Hughes and Maynard has continued to influence the parish to the present.

The church has a stained glass window that feature aspects of the Catholic revival up to the early 20th century. One of three panels shows Marian Hughes who was the first woman to take religious vows since the reformation. She is shown giving her vows to Edward Pusey.

List of rectors

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1848–1851 Daniel Newman
1851–1852 Thomas Hart-Davies
1852–1852 David Wood
1854–1900 Henry Hewett Paulet Handfield
1900–1926 Ernest Selwyn Hughes
1926–1964 Farnham Edward Maynard
1964–1979 Geoffrey James Taylor
1980–1989 John Bayton
1990–1998 Ralph David Farrer
1998–2010 John Cameron Davis
2012–2021 John Hugh Kempster
2022–present Michael Nicholas Roderick Bowie

Music

St Peter's is renowned for the quality of its music. The Choir of St Peter's Eastern Hill, formerly conducted by Andrew Raiskums, is a volunteer mixed choir which leads the church's liturgical music every Sunday as well as for weekday feasts.

The choir's main commitment is at the 11 am High Mass each Sunday. A cantor also sings at the 9.30 am Mass which has a specific family focus. Evensong, at 5.00 pm on Sundays, features a wide variety of musical styles from simple plainsong services to the Evensong repertoire of the English tradition.

There is a certain bias in the choir's repertoire towards music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods such as Dufay, Palestrina, Victoria, Byrd, Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Handel and Bach. The choir also performs many of the Mass settings of Mozart and Haydn, as well as works from the Romantic and modern periods, including those by Schubert, Howells, Fauré, Pärt and Britten. Contemporary works, including house compositions and commissions from Australian composers such as Terpstra, Pearson and Hodgson, are also in the choir's repertoire.

Plainsong forms a major part of the sung Ordinary of the Mass and of the office of Evensong and Benediction; it is an integral part of St Peter's life and liturgical witness.

References

^ "Music". St Peter's Eastern Hill. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
"St Peter's Anglican Church, Albert Street, Eastern Hill, Melbourne". Organ Historical Trust of Australia.
"St Peter's, Eastern Hill". To Melbourne.
"St Peter's, Eastern Hill, Melbourne, Australia". Ship of Fools.
"Marian Hughes: St Sepulchre's Cemetery, Oxford". www.stsepulchres.org.uk. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
"Lower centre panel of left light". webmail.stpeters.org.au. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
"A brief history of St Peter's". St Peter's Eastern Hill. Retrieved 12 April 2024.

External links

37°48′36″S 144°58′31″E / 37.8101°S 144.9752°E / -37.8101; 144.9752

Anglican Church of Australia

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Cathedrals	Sydney (St Andrew) Armidale (St Peter) Bathurst (All Saints) Goulburn (St Savior) Grafton (Christ Church) Griffith (St Albans) Newcastle (Christ Church) Parramatta (St John) Wollongong (St Michael)
Churches	All Saints', Petersham All Saints Church, Canberra All Souls', Leichhardt St Andrew's, Roseville St Barnabas, Broadway Christ Church, Rouse Hill Christ Church, Springwood Christ Church, St Laurence Church by the Bridge St Clement's, Mosman Garrison Church Holy Innocents, Rossmore Holy Trinity, Kelso St James', Sydney St James', Morpeth St John the Baptist, Ashfield St John the Evangelist, Darlinghurst St John the Evangelist, Newcastle St John the Evangelist, Wentworth St John the Baptist, Reid St John's, Camden St John's, Wilberforce St Jude's, Randwick St Luke's, Liverpool St Mark's, Darling Point St Mary's the Virgin, Maitland St Mary's, Waverley St Matthew's, Windsor St Michael's, Surry Hills Narellan Naremburn Cammeray St Paul's, Burwood St Paul's, Castle Hill St Peter's, St Peters St Peter's, Richmond St Philip's, Kingswood St Philip's, Sydney St Stephen's, Newtown St Thomas', Mulgoa St Thomas', North Sydney

Province of Victoria

Dioceses	Melbourne Churches Ballarat Bendigo Gippsland Wangaratta
Cathedrals	Melbourne (St Paul) Bendigo (St Paul) Sale (St Paul)
Churches	Christ Church, Geelong Holy Trinity Church, Bacchus Marsh St Peter's, Eastern Hill

Province of Queensland

Dioceses	Brisbane North Queensland Rockhampton Northern Territory
Cathedrals	Brisbane (St John) Townsville (St James) Rockhampton (St Paul)
Churches	All Saints, Brisbane All Saints, Darnley Island All Saints, Tamrookum All Saints, Yandilla Christ Church, St Lawrence Christ Church, Childers Christ Church, Milton Christ Church, Tingalpa Holy Trinity, Fortitude Valley Holy Trinity, Herberton Holy Trinity, Mackay Holy Trinity, Saibai Island Holy Trinity, Woolloongabba Old Bishopsbourne Chapel Old St Mark's, Slacks Creek Shepherd Memorial Church of St Peter, Proston St Agnes, Esk St Andrew's, Ormiston St Andrew's, South Brisbane St Andrew's, Toogoolawah St Anne's, Jondaryan St Augustine's, Leyburn St David's, Allora St David's, Mossman St Denys St George's, Beenleigh St James, Toowoomba St John the Baptist, Bulimba St John the Baptist, Richmond St John's, Dalby St John's, South Townsville St John's, Mundoolun St John's, Rockhampton St Luke's, Boyne Island St Luke's, Toowoomba St Mark's, Rockhampton St Mark's, Dunwich St Mark's, Warwick St Mary's, Kangaroo Point St Mary's, Mount Morgan St Matthew's, Drayton St Michael and All Angels, Kingaroy St Paul's, Cleveland St Paul's, East Brisbane St Paul's, Ipswich St Paul's, Maryborough St Paul's, Proserpine St Saviour's, South Johnstone St Thomas', Toowong

Province of Western Australia

Dioceses	Perth Bunbury North West Australia
Cathedrals	Perth (St George) Bunbury (St Boniface) Geraldton (Holy Cross)
Churches	All Saints Church, Henley Brook Holy Trinity Church, Roebourne St John's Church, Albany St Mary's Church, Busselton

Province of South Australia

Dioceses	Adelaide The Murray Willochra
Cathedrals	Adelaide (St Peter) Murray Bridge (St John the Baptist)
Churches	Holy Trinity Church, Adelaide St Matthew's Church, Kensington Christ Church, North Adelaide

Extra-provincial

Dioceses	Tasmania
Cathedrals	Hobart (St David)

Defunct

Dioceses	Carpentaria Kalgoorlie St Arnaud Papua New Guinea
Churches	Broadway Carlingford Deniliquin Prospect Seven Hills Walcha Wallerawang (now Presbyterian) Yarramalong

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