Knowing Christ, growing in Christ and showing Christ to the world
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St Stephen's Mittagong

St Stephen's

Whilst not the oldest Anglican Church building in the Southern Highlands, St Stephens has a rich history. The church was built in a number of stages beginning in 1878 and completed in 1968. Before the current building was used for worship, a church building of bark and slab construction was erected about 1850 in the area known as Rowes Hill, near where the present Marist Brothers complex stands on Old South Road. This was replaced in 1862 by a stone building on the same site, both buildings serving as a church and a school. A portion of the foundation stone of the stone church, found being used as a door stop in a local home, was recovered and incorporated into the porch which was added to the present building in 1928. Services in the old stone church ceased about 1873 as the centre of population moved to the present area of Mittagong.

Edmund Thomas Blacket, the diocesan architect was commissioned to design a building to be erected on land given by the Fitzroy Iron Mines Company. The foundation stone was laid on 9th November 1876, and the building was completed on 11th November 1878, at a cost of 1,333 pounds 11 shillings and 7 pence ($2667.16). The western porch was added in 1879, and in 1928 extensions were commenced in the Jubilee year, with the arch at the eastern end of the building being donated by Frensham School. This arch was originally a temporary weatherboard wall, but was replaced in 1968 with the present timber framed glass wall, together with an entrance foyer at the east end of the building. The seating in the church was increased and changed from facing the aisle to face west (the front of the church).

In 2006 construction began to build a new architecturally sympathetic Hall and foyer complex, providing better facilities and access to the stone church building. It will be opened in August 2007.

While buildings may be historical or attractive in some way, St Stephens Anglican is in reality the people. It is true that our meetings are open to anyone who may wish to join us, but we recognise that the members of a church are not simply those who may attend meetings. Rather they are those who have come to personally trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we meet, it is as a groups of people who are bound together by our common experience of knowing God as our Father and each other as his adopted children.