St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand



 


Notes: St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church, 84 Oxford Terrace, Christchurch 8001 (Corner Oxford Terrace and Durham Street.)
St Michael's is a Late Victorian Gothic building combining elements of the French fourteenth century gothic, and English Medieval styles. It was designed by William Fitzjohn Crisp and is one of the few buildings known to be designed solely by Crisp. The church is constructed entirely of Matai timber (native black pine) on rubble stone foundations. St Michael's is one of the largest timber churches of its style in the world and possesses a warmer atmosphere than one you would find in a stone building. Such a massive timber building requires an intricate framework, with pillars carved from single trees supporting nave arches and huge tie-beams in the roof structure. Structurally the church has changed little since completion in 1872, the only alteration being the 1896 removal of a tie-beam and secondary arch to give a better view of the east window.
Saint Michael & All Angels Parish, in Christchurch, New Zealand, aspires to the Anglo-Catholic way of worship inspired by the 19th century Oxford Movement in the Church of England. This movement aimed at restoring the High Church ideals of the 17th century, spurred on by the progressive decline of Church life, and the spread of a reform liberalism, which sought to erode the faith and practice of the early catholic and apostolic tradition. However, the mission of the parish has also been influenced by the exigencies of modern life.
The fullness of the Anglo-Catholic tradition was introduced to the parish of St. Michael and All Angels by Father Burton, an English priest who began his ministry at St.Michael’s in 1910, having been influenced by the Oxford Movement. The previous Vicar of the parish had been the Revd Walter Averill, who later became Archbishop of New Zealand. He helped to steer the parish towards its eventual Anglo-Catholic ethos but it remained for Fr. Burton to introduce the more overt Anglo-Catholic liturgical practices that were to form the basis of St. Michael’s present-day faith and worship.
As in other New Zealand Anglican parishes aspiring to introduce the more catholic aspects of faith and devotion in their presentation of worship, the clergy of St. Michael’s experienced some difficulties in the early days – in the way of suspicion from some of the hierarchy and clergy of the diocese. However, the devoted care and teaching of members of the Community of the Sacred Name who staffed St. Michael’s School, which was part of the parish plant and outreach, helped to allay most of the criticism and eventually to dispel any doubts as to the credibility of the mission of the parish to the people of Christchurch.


OpenStreetMap

Address : Latitude: -43.5346116174328, Longitude: 172.63250827789307


Married

Matches 1 to 3 of 3

   Family    Married    Family ID 
1 Downey / Dobbs  15 Jun 1858St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand F6758
2 Frost / Davis  17 Oct 1905St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand F3727
3 Frost / Wilson  15 Aug 1875St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand F6707