St James' Church, Sydney

St James' Church, Sydney
St James, King Street
St James' Church in about 1890, by Henry King
St James' Church, Sydney Location in the Sydney central business district
33°52′10″S 151°12′40″E / 33.8694°S 151.2111°E / -33.8694; 151.2111
Location	173 King Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales
Country	Australia
Denomination	Anglican Church of Australia
Churchmanship	Anglo-Catholic
Website	St James'
History
Status	Parish church
Founder(s)	Governor Macquarie
Dedication	St James
Consecrated	11 February 1824 (1824-02-11) by Samuel Marsden
Architecture
Architect(s)	Francis Greenway John Verge Varney Parkes
Style	Georgian
Groundbreaking	7 October 1819 (1819-10-07)
Administration
Diocese	Sydney
Parish	St James', King Street
Clergy
Rector	Christopher Waterhouse
Laity
Director of music	Warren Trevelyan Jones
Organist(s)	Alistair Nelson
New South Wales Heritage Register
Official name	St. James' Anglican Church; St James' Church
Type	State heritage (built)
Criteria	a., b., c., d., e., f.
Designated	3 September 2004[1]
Reference no.	01703
Type	Church
Category	Religion
Builders	Convict labour

St James' Church, commonly known as St James', King Street, is an Australian heritage-listed Anglican parish church located at 173 King Street, in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales. Consecrated in February 1824 and named in honour of St James the Great, it became a parish church in 1835. Designed in the style of a Georgian town church by the transported convict architect Francis Greenway during the governorship of Lachlan Macquarie, St James' is part of the historical precinct of Macquarie Street which includes other early colonial era buildings such as the World Heritage listed Hyde Park Barracks.

The church remains historically, socially and architecturally significant. The building is the oldest one extant in Sydney's inner city region. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 3 September 2004;^[1] and was listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate.

The church has maintained its special role in the city's religious, civic and musical life as well as its close associations with the city's legal and medical professions through its proximity to the law courts and Sydney Hospital. Its original ministry was to the convict population of Sydney and it has continued to serve the city's poor and needy in succeeding centuries.

Worship at St James' is in a style commonly found in the High Church and moderate Anglo-Catholic traditions of Anglicanism. It maintains the traditions of Anglican church music, with a robed choir singing psalms, anthems and responses in contrast to the great majority of churches in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney where services are generally celebrated in styles associated with Low Church and Evangelical Christian practices. The teaching at St James' has a more liberal perspective than most churches in the diocese on issues of gender and the ordination of women.