The History of the Parish Churches of North Sydney and Greenwich

St Peter's - Parish Church of North Sydney

St Peter's Presbyterian Church traces its origins to 1844. The first building on the present site opened for service in 1866. The workmanship of the era is highlighted by the beauty of the stained glass windows, the carved cedar pulpit, and the choir gallery. Also of note is the grand pipe organ, which dates back to 1885.

St Peter’s Presbyterian Church North Sydney has strong associations with Dr John Flynn known as “Flynn of the Inland”. Dr Flynn was the first Superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission (of the Presbyterian Church of Australia), founder of the Flying Doctor Service of Australia, and a past Moderator General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. He became a member and an elder of St Peter’s Church in 1914 and continued his association with the Church until his death in 1951.
A plaque commemorates his association with the church.

The church and other buildings of the parish are classified by the National Trust of Australia and the Heritage Council as buildings of great significance.

We hope that you will enjoy the warmth and serenity that touches those who cross the threshold of this historic church.

The Taylor Memorial Church - Parish Church of Greenwich

Presbyterian services were first started at Greenwich in 1899. The Taylor Memorial Presbyterian Church was a gift of Mr. John Taylor who lived in "Rothesay" Greenwich, in memory of his daughter, Margaret Campbell Brennand, in 1905 at a cost of about $2,000.

A new hall and manse were completed on the church site in 2000. The Church was renovated in 1998 and is now an attractive building with a small pipe organ, seating about 100 people.

How St Peter's began

There is no record of when the first Presbyterian observances may have been held on the north side of the harbour. Tradition says, and there is no reason to doubt its accuracy, that occasional services were held on the North Shore in the early 1840s by that fearless champion of Presbyterianism, the Rev John Dunmore Lang (the first marriage on Sydney's North Shore is said to have been performed on 3 October 1827 by the Rev Dunmore Lang, between a Mr William Shairp, a clerk form the Colonial Secretary's Department, and Miss Sophia Milson). St Peter's, though, takes as its foundation the date in mid-l844 when a Presbyterian presence on what was then called "the North Shore" was first officially recognized.

There had been, since at least 1843, a Presbyterian school held in a private house, probably not far from the present commercial centre of North Sydney. This school had outgrown its accommodation, but it suited the local residents very well, whatever their church allegiance, to have a school handy to the village of St Leonards (centred on Victoria Cross). In true North Sydney fashion a public meeting was held, which called on the Government to allot land for a school and elected as trustees a group mostly of local identities. These included John Blue, son of Billy Blue the "old commodore", who kept a public house on the site of the present Old Commodore Tavern, and his brother-in-law James French, the land speculator who gave his name to French's Forest; neither of them were Presbyterians. The church might have chosen differently if it had had a say in the matter - a Government inquiry was later to doubt whether the trustees were "men of the right stamp" to carry out the duties with which they were entrusted.

But a grant was duly made, issued on the 31st of July l844, and a two-storey schoolhouse was soon put up, weatherboard on stone foundations, perhaps where the carpark next to the Sunday School Hall is today. The schoolroom, on the upper floor, was not large, and the basement - two rooms built close against the rockface - damp and uninviting, though it apparently accommodated a teacher and his family for some years. A Minister appointed by the Presbytery of Sydney kept a general eye on the school and saw that religious instruction was properly carried out The school seems to have fallen under the general supervision of the church that was then in lower Kent Street, Millers Point.

In 1848 the Government set aside land for a church and a manse to stand across from the school, on the upper side of the high road to the ferry. No formal grant actually issued till 1874, so it is not clear how much land was understood to have been granted at this time. At any rate, it was to be some years before regular services began. In 1854 the Rev James Milne was asked by the Presbytery to see whether it would be possible to form a congregation, and if so to conduct services until permanent arrangements could be made. This he did for some time, and even after being appointed in that same year as Minister at Paddington he continued to hold services in both places. Frorn 1857, howeser, services hecame sporadic.

In 1864 the school, which had continued to grow, moved to a new building under the name "St Peter's Presbyterian School" - the first use of the name "St Peter's" to be recorded. This building is the stone hall, which still stands below Blues Point Road fronting Miller Street beside the later and much larger Sunday School Hall. It is used now for meetings of church committees and community groups. In 1864 also, a Minister was called for the first time: the Rev Cunningham Atchison. Services were initially held in the stone hall, and then from 1866 in a church on the present site. Cunningham Atchison seems to have been a quarrelsome man, and no doubt the building of the church was hastened by his disputes with the trustees over the use of the schoolhouse. Probably little of the structure of his first church remains - just some of the stonework of the short transept on the eastern side of the present church. The church seems to have been roughly square, and would not have held a very large congregation.

It was soon, however, to prove large enough. Atchison was deserted by his congregation. By 1869 the church stood empty, and the Presbytery felt there would be little point in providing supply.

But relief was at hand. A congregation of the Free Church, which had been meeting in the School of Arts, took advantage of the vacancy to rent the church building and met there in the latter part of 1869. At the end of the year this congregation changed its allegiance, and was constituted on the 21st of December 1869 as a congregation under the Presbytery of Sydney with the name of St Peter's. The name, the church and the congregation have continued since that date.

The church was extended for the first time in 1870; it seems that this was when it acquired the spire which is such a distinctive symbol of the present building. Three further extensions were to follow before the church reached its present proportions in 1905, though most of the familiar features of today's church date from the ministry of the Rev Roger McKinnon, who was called to St Peter's in 1878 and remained the Minister until his death in 1903. It was during his tenure that the organ was installed in 1885, and the originally clear windows replaced with stained glass, beginning in 1888 (one of the original windows remains in the southern porch).

St Peter's Church and Manse in an 1870s view

Over the time St Peter's has been in existence there have been major changes in the population it serves. In the later nineteenth century North Sydney was densely populated with citizens ranging from substantial businessmen to labourers. Sunday services were packed, and for many years it was worthwhile for St Peter's to run a chapel in Fitzroy Street, Kirribilli to serve the more far-flung Presbyterians in that part of the parish. The earlier twentieth century saw both a social decline in North Sydney and the demolition of many houses to make way for the Harbour Bridge, and later for the Warringah Expressway. During the long ministry of the Rev Dr John Calder (1932-1956) the resources of the church were stretched in just keeping afloat.

Nowadays, though St Peter's is not exactly an inner city church, it has many of the responsibilities of one. On the one hand we reach out to the North Sydney business community with our Wednesday lunchtime services, while on the other we try to be mindful of the needs of the many homeless, destitute and needy people in this area and throughout the city. A permanent 'tin bin' is maintained in the church for donations of food, and warm clothing is collected for distribution in the winter by the Dorcas Park Patrol.

We welcome visitors at all services including the Wednesday lunch-time service held from March to December, and those who come into the church for prayer or reflection in the spiritual warmth of this historic building