St Peter's, Eastern Hill - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

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Anglican Church of Australia

The Anglican Church of Australia is a member church of the Anglican Communion. It was previously officially known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania...

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|style="padding-right: 1em;" | Corner of Albert and Gisborne Streets
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|Website
|style="padding-right: 1em;" | www.stpeters.org.au
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|Telephone
|style="padding-right: 1em;" | (03) 9662 2391
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St Peter's, Eastern Hill is the Anglican parish church of the City of Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Victoria, Australia. The parish is in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne

Anglican Diocese of Melbourne

The Anglican Diocese of Melbourne is the metropolitan diocese of the Province of Victoria in the Anglican Church of Australia. The diocese includes the urban cities of Melbourne and Geelong and also some more rural areas. The cathedral church is St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne...

and dates from 1847. The letters patent

Letters patent

Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...

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

High church

The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...

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. St Peter's hosted the first meeting of Critical Mass on 25 July 2008. This group aims to draw young people from across the Melbourne diocese to engage in common prayer, share in the Eucharist and develop a support base for Anglican young adults, particularly those in the Catholic tradition.

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

St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne

St Patrick's Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, and seat of its archbishop, currently Denis J. Hart. The building is known internationally as a leading example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture.In 1974 Pope Paul VI...

, the Roman Catholic cathedral. On the other side it is opposite the Eastern Hill Fire Station

Eastern Hill Fire Station

Eastern Hill Fire Station is the central fire station of Melbourne, Australia, located in on the corner of Victoria Parade and Gisborne Street, opposite St Peter's, Eastern Hill, one of the highest points in the city of Melbourne...

. Although the church is located close to the city centre it draws parishioners and visitors from all over Melbourne and internationally. Click to show location in Google Maps

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

Charles La Trobe

Charles Joseph La Trobe was the first lieutenant-governor of the colony of Victoria .-Early life:La Trobe was born in London, the son of Christian Ignatius Latrobe, a family of Huguenot origin...

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, established mainly through teaching in sermons. The opera singer Nellie Melba

Nellie Melba

Dame Nellie Melba GBE , born Helen "Nellie" Porter Mitchell, was an Australian operatic soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian Era and the early 20th century...

had organ lessons at the church as a schoolgirl. The novelist Henry Handel Richardson

Henry Handel Richardson

Henry Handel Richardson, the pseudonym used by Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, was an Australian author. She took the name "Henry Handel" because at that time, many people did not take women's writing seriously, so she used a male name...

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

Brotherhood of St Laurence

The Brotherhood of St Laurence is an Australian not-for-profit organisation. Based in Melbourne, the Brotherhood has a national profile. The organisation's vision is for an Australia free of poverty. In working towards this vision it undertakes research and develops and delivers services and...

, 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 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 a.m. High Mass

High Mass

High Mass may mean:*Solemn Mass, a Tridentine Mass celebrated with deacon and subdeacon *Missa Cantata, a sung Tridentine Mass without deacon and subdeacon...

each Sunday. A cantor also sings at the 9.30 a.m. Mass, which has a specific family focus. Evensong

Evensong

The term evensong can refer to the following:* Evening Prayer , the Anglican liturgy of Evening Prayer, especially so called when it is sung...

, at 5.00 pm on Sundays, features a wide variety of musical styles, from simple plainsong

Plainsong

Plainsong is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church. Though the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Catholic Church did not split until long after the origin of plainchant, Byzantine chants are generally not classified as plainsong.Plainsong is monophonic, consisting of a...

services to the Evensong repertoire of the English tradition.

There is a certain bias in the choir's repertoire towards music of the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

and Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

periods (Dufay

Guillaume Dufay

Guillaume Dufay was a Franco-Flemish composer of the early Renaissance. As the central figure in the Burgundian School, he was the most famous and influential composer in Europe in the mid-15th century.-Early life:From the evidence of his will, he was probably born in Beersel, in the vicinity of...

, Ockeghem, Josquin des Prez

Josquin Des Prez

Josquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance...

, Firmin Lebel

Firmin Lebel

Firmin Lebel was a French composer and choir director of the Renaissance, active in Rome. While relatively little of his music survives, he was notable as one of the likely teachers of Palestrina....

, Palestrina

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition...

, Eccard, Byrd

William Byrd

William Byrd was an English composer of the Renaissance. He wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard and consort music.-Provenance:Knowledge of Byrd's biography expanded in the late 20th century, thanks largely...

, Monteverdi, Gesualdo

Carlo Gesualdo

Carlo Gesualdo, known as Gesualdo di Venosa or Gesualdo da Venosa , Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, was an Italian nobleman, lutenist, composer, and murderer....

, Bach

Bạch

Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...

, ...). The choir also performs many of the masses of Mozart and Haydn, as well as works from the Romantic and modern periods, including masses by Schubert, Rheinberger, Fauré

Faure

Faure or Fauré is a French family name and may refer to:People:* Edgar Faure, French politician* Élie Faure, French art historian and essayist* Émile Alphonse Faure, lead battery pioneer* Cédric Fauré, French football striker...

and Britten. Contemporary works, including house compositions and commissions from Australian composers (Terpstra

Terpstra

Terpstra is a surname of Frisian origin, and may refer to:* Erica Terpstra , Dutch swimmer and politician* John Terpstra , Canadian poet* Niki Terpstra , Dutch bicycle racer...

, Pearson

Pearson

Pearson may refer to:In places:*Pearson, California *Pearson, Georgia, a US city*Pearson, Texas, an unincorporated community in the US*Pearson, Victoria, a ghost town in Australia....

, and Hodgson

Hodgson

Hodgson is a surname. In Britain, the Hodgson surname was the 173rd most common in 1881 and the 206th most common in 1998. In the United States of America, Hodgson was the 3753rd most popular surname in the 1990 census.-Origin and Meaning:The surname authority P. H...

) are also in the choir's extensive repertoire.

Plainsong forms a major part of the sung Ordinary of the Mass

Ordinary of the Mass

The ordinary, in Roman Catholic and other Western Christian liturgies, refers to the part of the Eucharist or of the canonical hours that is reasonably constant without regard to the date on which the service is performed...

and of the Office of Evensong; it is an integral part of St Peter's life and liturgical witness.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Location

History

Festal High Mass

Music

See also

External links