Собор Святого Андрея в Сиднее: История и Архитектура

St Andrew's Cathedral (also known as St Andrew's Anglican Cathedral) is a cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church of Australia. The cathedral is the seat of the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of New South Wales (currently the Most Reverend Kanishka Raffel from 28 May 2021). The position of Dean of Sydney has been held by the Very Reverend Sandy Grant since 9 December 2021. The St Andrew's has an Evangelical ministry, holding services every day, including a weekly healing service. There is a cathedral choir of men and boys who sing during term time, as well as a company of bell ringers. The notable pipe organ has been restored and is regularly used for recitals and concerts. Designed primarily by Edmund Blacket on foundations laid by James Hume, the cathedral was built from 1837 to 1868, and was ready for services and consecrated in 1868, making it the oldest cathedral in Australia. St Andrew's is one of the city's finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture. Joan Kerr described the cathedral as "a perfect example of the colonial desire to reproduce England in Australia in the mid nineteenth century". The cathedral is located at 1400 George Street in the Sydney central business district of the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales. St Andrew's is owned by the Anglican Church Property Trust. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 3 September 2004;

A cathedral was planned by Governor Lachlan Macquarie to be an impressive building in the centre of Sydney within a large square which would contain major civic buildings. He foresaw that Sydney would grow into a large city requiring a large cathedral. With the architect Francis Greenway, who had been transported to Sydney for forgery, Macquarie planned a church 200 feet (61 m) square and probably with the seating and galleries facing inward from three sides. The foundation stone was laid with full ceremony on 31 August 1819. Only a few foundations were laid, however, before the plan was abandoned. It was later moved to accommodate development under Governor Bourke to make George Street straight rather than interrupted by a large square. Macquarie's plans were abandoned with the appointment of Commissioner Bigge to the colony and St James' was constructed in place of the proposed cathedral as a church for Sydney. Broughton did not live to consecrate St Andrew's. He died while on a trip to England in 1853 and is buried in Canterbury Cathedral. The second Bishop of Sydney, Frederic Barker, consecrated the completed building on St Andrew's Day, 30 November 1868. Seven out of nine Australian bishops were present at the opening. By 1874 the cathedral was substantially complete, including the western towers. The external form of the building had been finished, the building was furnished and changes had already commenced to the interior. Problems were detected due to water and ventilation which Blacket attended to with varying degrees of success.

The erection of a chapter house was first mooted in 1883 to provide a synod hall in memory of Bishop Barker. Its construction was approved unanimously by the chapter and synod. Cyril Blacket, Edmund Blacket's son, was appointed as architect. The foundation stone was laid on 30 November 1885 and construction completed in 1886. The choice of site was limited, the south west corner of the site being the only vaguely suitable one. Even this was restricted. In 1916 additions enlarging the chapter house were completed by Wiltshire and Day. Calls for further enlargement continued but nothing was done due to the difficulty of the task.

The interior is a harmonious composition in Perpendicular Gothic. Although the building is small, it is given a sense of grandeur by the proportions of the arcade and clerestory, the richness of the moldings, the loftiness of the hammerbeam roof with its blue and vermillion decoration, and the decorative details, which include carved stone ribbons around the nave piers, bearing the names of notables in the early Sydney church. The stone used throughout is Sydney sandstone. The chancel has a newly restored floor in ornate pattern set with marble and intaglio tiles in the Cosmati style by Fields of London, created under the direction of Gilbert Scott. The rest of the building is paved with encaustic tiles of red and black with small intaglio designs by Mintons of Stoke on Trent. The reredos was commissioned by the third Bishop of Sydney, Bishop Barry, and carved of translucent cream English alabaster by the sculptor Thomas Earp, under the supervision of the well known Gothic Revival architect J. L. Pearson in 1886. The subject matter of the three pictorial panels, as originally created, were: at the centre, the Crucifixion; to the left, the Resurrection; to the right, the Ascension. To either side were the figures of Moses and Elijah. In 1887 there was objection at synod to the representational nature of the reredos and in particular to the central Crucifixion on the grounds that it might be seen as idolatrous. The Crucifixion was replaced, at the expense of the objectors, by the present scene of the Transfiguration. Both depictions of Moses, like the famous sculpture by Michelangelo in San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome show him with horns, a symbolic attribute due to a mistranslation in the Vulgate Bible. The original furniture of the chancel, of which most remains, is of different dates, but for the most part in the Gothic style. The original choir stalls, of dark English oak, are particularly fine, having large poppy heads, each richly carved with a different foliate design. These were removed under Dean Phillip Jensen, but were reinstated following his departure.

The lower stained glass windows are one of the earliest complete cycles of glass by Hardman of Birmingham and demonstrate the skilful employment of primary colour, elegant design and narrational intelligence that is typical of the work of John Hardman Powell. They represent the life and the parables of Jesus. The seven light and four tiered east window is a complex composition showing scenes in the life of Christ at which the Apostle Andrew was present, such as the Feeding of the Five Thousand. The west window has tiers of apostles.

St Andrew's Cathedral is built to the cruciform shape traditional of Christian churches and symbolic of the faith. The body of the cathedral, or nave, with lower aisles on either side, is crossed by the transept, forming a chancel for the seating of clergy and choir at the eastern end. The sides of the choir are traditionally known as cantoris, the side of the precentor, or cantor, and decani, the side of the dean, the senior clerical appointee within the cathedral. See Cathedral architecture and Cathedral diagram. It is customary for cathedrals to be orientated on an east–west axis with the main door to the west and the sanctuary to the east. St Andrew's conformed to that tradition. But a major thoroughfare, George Street, runs by the eastern rather than the western end, making the main entrance less accessible. It also meant that when an electric tram system was installed in the street, the noise frequently drowned out the service of Holy Communion. In 1941 the interior was therefore reoriented. A new raised chancel floor was built in the west end, the west door was permanently closed and the reredos was placed immediately in front of it. All the internal fittings of the chancel were relocated, the positioning of the reredos right against the wall creating some extra space. There was a claim that the acoustics were improved but this is spurious. While, on one hand, the trams would not have seemed so loud, being more remote, the negative effects on the internal acoustics were significant and a very large number of choristers were employed to make themselves heard. In 1999–2000 major conservation and restoration work was undertaken to restore the original internal layout, whereby the sanctuary was relocated at the cathedral's eastern end. This was achieved under deanship of the Very Reverend Boak Jobbins. As part of the reorientation and conservation, the Whitely organ was removed from the north transept gallery, thus revealing one of the larger of Hardman's windows including, notably and somewhat controversially, the Crucifixion, the only depiction in the entire cathedral, together with the crucifixions of the saints Andrew and Peter.

To avoid any potential confusion of the communion table with an altar, the strongly Evangelical diocesan leadership decided that the communion table should be placed in a more forward position in the chancel and that it should be easily portable in order that it might be removed when not required for Holy Communion, to clear a space for presentations and musical performances. A new table, of a simple, square and modern design, was installed. It was suggested by some traditional Anglicans that the older table, with its ornate carving, should be retained in its usual place in front of the reredos. It is not unusual for cathedrals in England, because of their vast size, to have tables in two positions. But as this was not the case in Sydney it was decided to abandon the old table rather than maintaining it at the risk of it being associated with the "high altar" of Roman Catholic and many Anglican churches (the communion table in an Anglican church in Sydney must be of wood and be able to be moved). In addition, a major consideration in not retaining the old table was that it was riddled with termite damage, a perpetual problem in the centre of Sydney. Since the departure of Phillip Jensen, the old choir stalls have been reinstalled in their former position, and the more modern temporary ones are not in use. The eagle lecterns have been reinstated. The mobile "holy table, known as "Meals on Wheels", is still in use. One of the treasures of the cathedral is the Great Bible of 1539 (printed at the date when Henry VIII ordered that every church should have a Bible in the English language). It was donated to St Andrew's by the church of St Andrew's Barnwell in Northamptonshire, United Kingdom, in thanksgiving for the Australia's generosity to post war Britain. The prominent positioning of the Bible (in its glass case) at the side of the reredos is illustrative of the Sydney diocese's emphasis on belief in the Bible as the authoritative "Word of God". The emphasis of Sydney Anglican theology on an understanding of scripture, as against experiential spirituality, is confirmed by the apparent precedence of the book over the sacrament.

As at 7 July 2003, Physical condition is good. Archaeological potential is high. In 1932 an organ by John Whitely was placed opposite in the north transept. In the 1950s the instruments were amalgamated to be played from a single console, thus constituting the largest church organ in Australia. There was a further rationalisation of the organs in 1998 with a restoration by the Canadian firm of Orgues Létourneau. The Whitely was removed from the north transept gallery. The organ, as reconstituted by Letourneau, consists of four manuals with mechanical action, comprising the rebuilt Hill organ, together with the best of the Whitely pipework. There are regular Thursday afternoon recitals by Australian and international organists, commencing at 1:10 pm and usually lasting for 30 or 40 minutes. These recitals have been held for over 40 years.

St Andrew's has a peal of 12 bells cast by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough in England and installed in 1965 to the memory of Ernest Samuel Trigg. The tenor weighs 291/4 cwt and the lightest 61/2 cwt. They are rung by members of The Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers each Sunday morning and on practice nights.

The cathedral is part of the Town Hall Group, a group of heritage listed buildings in that part of Sydney. Apart from the cathedral, the group includes the Sydney Town Hall (designed by Wilson and Bond, built 1886–89), the Queen Victoria Building (designed by George McRae, built 1893–98), the former Gresham Hotel (149 York Street, designed by J. Kirkpatrick, built c. 1890) and the former Bank of New South Wales (facade only), 485 George Street (designed by Varney Parkes, built 1894).

As at 1 July 2003, St Andrew's Cathedral is one of the finest Gothic revival church buildings in New South Wales and is the pre eminent church building within the Sydney Anglican Diocese. The building represents the aspirations of the Colony and was the focus of much of Sydney life both during and after its construction. The completion of the Cathedral building was a major achievement for both the church and the City of Sydney. The building has high spiritual significance for both Anglicans and the wider community. It has been the "State" church for many major events. The building group has high aesthetic significance as a finely crafted and detailed group of structures. The Cathedral interior has high aesthetic value, even in its altered form, containing much of the original furniture and fittings including the Hill organ. The Cathedral contains a very fine and significant set of stained glass windows that predominantly date from the time of construction. The cathedral has historic significance as it has reflected the growth of the Anglican Church and changes in Anglicanism and for its associations with prominent church and civic persons. St Andrew's has a National Trust of Australia heritage listing as being a building of national significance.