St James' Church, Sydney

St James' Church, Sydney
St James, King Street
St James' Church in about 1890, by Henry King
33°52′10″S 151°12′40″E / 33.86944°S 151.21111°E / -33.86944; 151.21111Coordinates: 33°52′10″S 151°12′40″E / 33.86944°S 151.21111°E / -33.86944; 151.21111
Country	Australia
Denomination	Anglican Church of Australia
Churchmanship	Anglo-Catholic
Website	sjks.org.au
History
Founder(s)	Governor Macquarie
Dedication	St James
Consecrated	1824
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Heritage designation	Significant
Designated	3 September 2004
Architect(s)	Francis Greenway
Style	Georgian
Groundbreaking	1819 (1819)
Administration
Parish	St James', King Street
Diocese	Sydney
Clergy
Rector	Andrew Sempell
Assistant	John Stewart Martin Davies
Laity
Director of music	Warren Trevelyan Jones
Organist(s)	Alistair Nelson

St James' Church, commonly known as St James', King Street, is an Anglican parish church in inner city Sydney, Australia, 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 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 is listed on the Register of the National Estate, and has been described as one of the world's 80 greatest man-made treasures.

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.