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Saint Andrew's Cathedral
Name of an Anglican
cathedral in downtown
Singapore and the
oldest Anglican site of worship in the nation state. Initially, the
Anglican community worshipped in a wooden and thatch-roofed mission
chapel located, where the Raffles Hotel (fig.)
is today. The then Chaplain for the Mission Chapel desired a proper
house of worship and in 1834 sufficient funds were raised to start
building a church on land allocated by Stamford Raffles a decade
years earlier, after the Jackson Plan, named after Lieutenant Philip
Jackson, the colony’s engineer who on the request of Raffles in 1822
drew up reconstruction plans for the new British trading port
settlement founded in January 1819, in which land was
demarcated in a grid pattern for different government buildings,
residential areas for ethnic groups, trade, and public activities,
which also included provisions for a church. Since a substantial
portion of the initial funds was raised by the Scottish community,
the church was named after Saint Andrew, one of the 12 Apostles of
Christ and the patron saint of Scotland. The foundation stone of the
original church building was laid on Monday 9th November 1835. It
was designed by George Drumgoole Coleman in the neo-classical style
and inspired by the symmetrical sensibilities of classical Greek and
Roman architecture. The church held its first service on 18 June
1837 and was consecrated a year later by the Right Revd Daniel
Wilson, the Bishop of Calcutta, who had jurisdiction over Singapore.
In 1842, a spire was added to distinguish the sacred edifice from
surrounding civic buildings. However, the spire was struck twice by
lightning in 1845 and 1849, and though there were no injuries,
church services were discontinued in 1852 for safety reasons and in
1855 plans for a new church building were approved. The foundation
stone for the new and present building was laid in 1856. The first
service was held on 1st October 1861 and consecrated in 1862. It was
designed by Colonel Ronald MacPherson in the neo-Gothic
architectural style and built to accommodate around 300 seated
worshippers. Like many buildings in Singapore at that time, it was
constructed with the use of Indian convict labour. The church was
built under the supervision of John F. A. McNair who was appointed
executive engineer and superintendent of convicts in 1857. Fluent in
Hindi, McNair had only one European assistant while the rest of his
crew were convict labourers from India. In 1870, St. Andrew’s Church
became a Cathedral serving the Diocese of Labuan and Sarawak. Unlike
the earlier edifice, the present structure has lasted for more than
150 years, standing as a quiet witness to the generations of
Christians
that have
come through its doors to find an oasis in the heart of a bustling
city-state. The building consists of a nave with north and south
aisles. The north and south transepts, originally built as porches
for carriages, have in later years been extended to provide halls,
meeting rooms and offices. Another extension known as the Cathedral
New Sanctuary was started in November 2003 and completed and
consecrated in 2005 by Bishop John Chew, resulting in the Cathedral
Welcome Centre and The Chapel of All Peoples located on street
level, while two storeys below street level there is an underground
worship hall. Information plaques with text and photos are erected
in the open-air corridor that connects the Cathedral with the is new
extension, depicting the church's legacy and some of the highlights
in its history, such as when the Cathedral in 1942 was used as an
emergency hospital before the fall of Singapore.
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