St Peter's, Eastern Hill

	St Peter's, Eastern Hill, Melbourne, Australia


Vicar	Hugh Kempster
Assistant Priests	Stanislaw Kokolus Philip Gill Richard Wilson
Associate Clergy	Don Edgar, Graeme Rutherford
Director of Music	Andrew Raiskums
Affiliations	Anglican Church
Location	Corner of Albert and Gisborne Streets
Website	stpeters.org.au

St Peter's, Eastern Hill is the Anglican parish church of the City of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The parish is in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne and dates from 1847. The 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 well known as belonging to the Anglo-Catholic or High Church 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.

St Peter's today

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, 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.

Festal High Mass

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.

Music

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

The choir's main commitment is at the 11 a.m. 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; it is an integral part of St Peter's life and liturgical witness.

References

External links

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

Anglican Church of Australia

A list of all the Anglican dioceses, churches and cathedrals in Australia

Province of New South Wales

Dioceses	Armidale Bathurst Canberra and Goulburn Grafton Newcastle Riverina Sydney Churches
Cathedrals	St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle St Peter's Cathedral, Armidale St Saviour's Cathedral, Goulburn
Churches	All Saints Anglican Church, Petersham All Souls Anglican Church, Leichhardt Christ Church, Rouse Hill Christ Church St Laurence Church by the Bridge Naremburn Cammeray Anglican Church St Andrew's, Roseville St. Barnabas, Broadway St James' Church, Sydney St John the Baptist Church, Ashfield St Thomas' Anglican Church, Narellan St Thomas' Anglican Church, North Sydney St Philip's Church, Sydney

Province of Victoria

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

Province of Western Australia

Dioceses	Bunbury North West Australia Perth
Cathedrals	St George's Cathedral, Perth
Churches	All Saints Church, Henley Brook

Province of South Australia

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

Extra-provincial

Dioceses	Tasmania
Cathedrals	St David's Cathedral, Hobart

Defunct

Dioceses	Carpentaria Kalgoorlie St Arnaud

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