St John's Cathedral (Brisbane)

St John's Cathedral
Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist
Western façade from Cathedral Square.
Coordinates: 27°27′50″S 153°01′48″E / 27.46398°S 153.030061°E / -27.46398; 153.030061
Location	Brisbane, Queensland
Country	Australia
Denomination	Anglican
Churchmanship	Broad church
Website	stjohnscathedral.com.au
History
Dedication	John the Evangelist
Consecrated	29 October 2009
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Architect(s)	John Loughborough Pearson
Style	Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking	1901
Administration
Diocese	Brisbane
Province	Queensland
Clergy
Dean	Peter Catt

St John's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral of Brisbane and the metropolitan cathedral of the ecclesiastical province of Queensland, Australia. The cathedral is situated in Ann Street in the Brisbane central business district, and is the successor to an earlier pro-cathedral, which occupied part of the contemporary Queens Gardens on William Street, from 1854 to 1904. The cathedral is the second oldest Anglican church in Brisbane, predated only by the extant All Saints church on Wickham Terrace (1862). The cathedral is also the only existing Neo-gothic-style building in all of Australia and the southern hemisphere. It is also the only existing building with a stone vaulted ceiling in the southern hemisphere. The cathedral is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.

The cathedral is the centre for big diocesan events such as the ordinations of priests and deacons which attract large congregations; a parish church catering for a diverse congregation of worshipers from around the city of Brisbane; a major centre for the arts and music with its own orchestra, the Camerata of St John's, which holds several concerts in the cathedral each year; and an international centre of pilgrimage attracting over 20,000 visitors annually from around the world.

The choir of men and boys sing the traditional Anglican repertoire as well as more adventurous fare. The cathedral also possesses a four manual pipe organ, the largest cathedral organ in Australia, which hosts many recitalists from across the world: Pearson's design (and stone-vaulting) creates a five-second reverberation making organ-music particularly resonant.

St John's Cathedral is unique in Australia as the completion of the building design was achieved through collaboration between clergy, stonemasons and architects over a period of almost 100 years, as with Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals in the Middle Ages and, more recently, 20th century cathedrals such as Liverpool Cathedral in England, St John the Divine in New York and Washington National Cathedral in Washington DC. It was also the only Victorian Gothic cathedral under construction in Australia.