St James the Great, St Kilda East

About

St James the Great, St Kilda East, is an Anglican parish church in the Melbourne suburb of City of Glen Eira in Victoria, Australia. Located in Inkerman Street, St Kilda East, since its establishment in 1914, the parish is in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne and is the smallest parish in terms of geographical area. From its beginnings in the chapel of St John's Theological College the church has been observantly Anglo-Catholic in its traditions of liturgy and teaching. Since the 1940s the municipality has gradually become the heart of Melbourne's Haredi Jewish community. The parish was founded in 1914, the church building commenced in early 1915 with the first regular Sunday service in the completed church on 27 June 1915.

The parish was founded in 1914 coinciding with the subdivision of local market gardens and agistment paddocks as Melbourne's suburbs expanded. Although the larger churches of All Saints' Anglican Church, St Mary's Caulfield and Holy Trinity Balaclava were nearby, the Archbishop of Melbourne, Lowther Clarke, responded positively to petitioners for a new parish and determined that there was sufficient support for the establishment of another parish in the easternmost part of what was then St Kilda. Prior to the establishment of the parish, All Saints' East St Kilda had provided the outreach of the Leslie Street Mission Hall for the people of the area from 15 October 1896 until sometime in 1911.

Origins at St John's Theological College

A number of local people had worshipped for some years with the students at St John's Theological College, a five-acre site located at 195-201 Alma Road, St Kilda East (and formerly the old Cumloden School from 1891 to 1905).

In 1906 Archbishop Lowther Clarke appointed Reginald Stephen as warden of St John's Theological College, which he held concurrently as the Dean of Melbourne from 1910 until his appointment as the Bishop of Tasmania in February 1914. St John's was intended to provide theological training for non-matriculated men without the means to enter university. John Stephen Hart was a lecturer at the college from 1907, succeeding Stephen as warden and chaplain in 1914.

Preston (2011) reports that Ridley College was "opened in 1910 by an evangelical faction, competed with St John's, and was the preferred option of the evangelically-minded rural Bendigo and Gippsland dioceses." In 1919 the theological college was closed by the diocese as it was deemed that the Tractarian influences fostered by the college were at odds with the preferred churchmanship of the diocese. This was despite Hart having recently been elected as Dean of Melbourne; the closure of the college left Hart without an income as the position of dean was non-stipendiary at the time.

Shortly afterwards in 1920 the property was sold, the buildings demolished, the site subdivided and bisected by the creation of Wilgah Street.

By 1914 the local members of the congregation had grown to such an extent that the college chapel had become crowded during services. Some of the local members of the congregation petitioned for the establishment of a parish church where they could continue the Anglo-Catholic liturgical practices to which they were accustomed. Archbishop Clarke excised lands from the parishes of All Saints’ East St Kilda and St Mary's Caulfield in spite of the vigorous protests from both of these parishes. Land was procured on the corner of Inkerman and Alexandra Streets in two lots: the first to build a church on Inkerman Street on 28 May 1913 for £879, the second lot for the establishment of a vicarage behind the church in a " battle axe block " on 24 April 1914 for £500.

The new parish was promulgated on 19 April 1914 at the college and the college chapel continued to be their home until 21 June 1915. The choice of St James as the patron saint of the parish reflected the relationship with St John's College as the apostles James and John were also brothers (the sons of Zebedee ).

The foundation stone of church building was laid by Archbishop Lowther Clarke on 10 April 1915. In the service which accompanied the laying of the stone he acknowledged the hospitality of St John's Theological College in making available its chapel to the congregation while the church was being built, as well as publicly announcing the death the previous day of Bishop James Moorhouse. The church was dedicated by Archbishop Clarke some three months later on 23 June 1915 (a Wednesday), with services commencing the following Sunday, 27 June 1915.

The vicarage was completed in 1918, with the incumbent, the Revd J. C. Nankivell, raising more than £200 "singlehandedly" towards the costs. A church hall (now St James House) was completed in 1958 and a separate kindergarten building in 1965.

The first incumbent was Garnet Eric Shaw, a graduate of the University of Melbourne, taking his BA while resident at Trinity College, and then completing his theological training through St John's College (ThL). He was ordained as a priest in 1911 and appointed as the first Anglican chaplain to the Australian Navy in 1912. Shaw was well accustomed to life at sea, having previously worked extensively in the pearling industry, and holding both a mate's and a master's mariner certificates. He resigned from the Navy because he objected to compulsory attendance at divine service for naval personnel, which was at odds with Navy policy at that time. After the outbreak of the Great War, he decided to resign from the parish and enlisted for active service. It was reported at the time that he did not intend to return to ministry after the war, defending his position that "though the Church [was] right in its principles, it [did] not always follow its principles into practice". Shaw survived the war, having been accepted for officer training and active service in France, and eventually being appointed a chaplain in the AIF. After the war he returned to parish life: his war service records indicate that in applying for his service medals ( British War Medal, and Victory Medal) he was the incumbent of All Soul's South Sassafras (Kallista) in 1924.

The first churchwarden of St James was Arthur Knox, a member of the parish until his death at the age of 84 in 1944.

The next incumbent, A. B. Burnaby, was inducted on 2 February 1916 having previously been the curate of the neighbouring parish of All Saints. Burnaby became ill soon after and was unable to continue with his duties in December 1916. A.E. Wood served as interim for approximately three months until June 1917, prior to taking up duties at Christ Church, South Yarra.

In July 1917 John Cuthbert Nankivell was appointed, only to be removed by the archbishop in 1919 despite the support of many parishioners due to suspicions of Nankivell "romanising" the parish through the use of "devotional practices such as prayers for the departed" His removal coincided with the closure of St John's College. It was reported in the press that he had resigned the parish in favour of a temporary appointment as hospital chaplain pending his return to Great Britain.

Canon M. A. Snodgrass, the previous incumbent of St Paul's Geelong, was appointed to St James' in April 1919, married Elsie Kiddle of Toorak in 1922, and then resigned in November 1923 after which they departed for an extended tour of Europe, arriving back in Australia in May 1925. Snodgrass died in December 1929.

H. R. Potter, having previously served with Canon Snodgrass at St Paul's Geelong, was vicar until April 1936 when W. Albert Shaw was appointed. Shaw, who had previously been vicar of St Cuthbert's Brunswick East, for 19 years, was 62 years of age when he arrived at St James and was incumbent for five years until his death in December 1941.

Construction commenced at the beginning of the First World War: the original church building (and the vicarage) were modest and restrained; the sanctuary end (liturgical east) facing south. There was very little sanctuary area – comprising a "wooden chancel on the south side where it [was] proposed ultimately to extend... in accordance with the plans" and the interior brickwork was pointed but not rendered. The internal roof structure was lined with exposed beams and remains so to this day.

Originally from the north and south transepts of All Saints' East St Kilda, the pews in St James’ were "donated" by All Saints' which nonetheless billed St James' for their removal and for the renovation of the transept floors. Brass plates of the original renters of the pews at All Saints' are still visible. The first incumbent, Shaw, objected to pew rents on principle, and refused to institute this practice at St James.

The original intention was to build in stages, with the ultimate church arranged in proper liturgical axis (sanctuary eastwards) featuring a long nave and west door facing onto Alexandra Street, to be "surmounted by a large square tower, with a spire in the centre".