Turning 180 this year, the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist, Reid, is Canberra City’s oldest building, and its history is closely bound up with Canberra’s.
Founded in 1841 and consecrated in 1845, St John’s has been “a steady feature from long before the national capital was established” in 1913, says the rector, the Revd. David McLennan.
Indeed, the oldest photograph taken in what would become the ACT is of the church — not yet finished, still to be topped with its spire; in the foreground, a man shoots rabbits in a paddock. That paddock, long since buried under tarmac, is now Anzac Parade.
Robert Campbell of Duntroon helped to pay for the church’s construction, as well as that of Canberra’s first school and library (now a small museum) on the site.
St John’s also contains Canberra’s original graveyard; those buried here include Sir Robert Garran, the former Commonwealth Solicitor-General, and former Governor-General Viscount Dunrossil (1960–61).
“It’s been a continuing witness … to a Christian presence in the region,” Mr McLennan said. “It’s ministered to that early generation of settlers, and then through the Federation era, as Canberra took on a new significance.”
It has been called “the Westminster Abbey of Australia”: because Canberra has no Anglican cathedral (the bishop’s seat is in Goulburn), St John’s is “a focal point of worship where significant civic events can occur”, Mr McLennan said.
Illustrious visitors include the late Queen Elizabeth II (for whose first visit in 1954 the church was given a 13th-century stone from Westminster Abbey); the then-Prince Charles; Bishop Desmond Tutu, the South African anti-apartheid and human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner; and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Australia’s first Chief of General Staff, Major-General Bridges, was laid in state here, before he was interred elsewhere.
Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd regularly attended service here, as did Governor-General Lord De L’Isle (1961–65), who gave the church its eight bells in memory of his wife, Jacqueline, who died in 1963.
Today, Mr McLennan says, St John’s is an inclusive Christian community with around 250 parishioners: senior public servants, military officials, contractors, teachers, and a diverse range of professions in the public service, government, and non-government spheres. Its community, the rector believes, is close to 500 people, given funerals, baptisms, and civic events, a diaspora with historic affiliation, occasional attendees, and visitors to Canberra.
The church holds memorials to politicians, governors-general, and army chiefs of staff, among them ‘Doc’ Evatt, Labor leader and president of the UN General Assembly; to Sister May Hayman, a missionary killed by Japanese soldiers in World War II; and to the three Eddison brothers, killed during World War II, after whom both Eddison Park in Philip and a house at Canberra Grammar School were named.
It also owns a lamp donated by Gough Whitlam’s confirmation class and an organ designed by Ronald Sharp, who made the Sydney Opera House organ.
“It’s a really special place,” Mr McLennan said. “To be able to worship in here each week, and for me for it to be my workplace, is a stunning privilege.”
