Saint Andrew's Cathedral

You Know All About Saint Andrew’s Cathedral? 

Saint Andrew’s Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Singapore, located near City Hall, Downtown Core, within the Central Area in Singapore’s central business district. It serves as the mother church for 27 parishes and more than 55 congregations and is the primary Cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Singapore. The Saint Andrew’s Cathedral has stood on this spot since 1836, though the current structure gets built between 1856 and 1861. St. Andrew’s Cross is the cathedral’s emblem.

The Saint Andrew’s Cathedral Mission, which began in 1856, celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2006.

History

The first Saint Andrew’s Church was constructed between 1835 and 1836 according to a design by George Drumgoole Coleman. The second Church of Saint Andrew gets designed by John Turnbull Thomson and built around 1842. It was closed in 1852 and later demolished in 1855 because of rumors of unsatisfied ghosts and damage from two lightning hits between 1845 and 1849.

The Executive Engineer and Superintendent of Convicts, Colonel Ronald MacPherson, created the new church. As with many constructions of the time, Indian prisoners of war get employed to reduce costs. The first service gets held on October 1, 1861, after Daniel Wilson, the bishop of Calcutta, lay the cornerstone on March 4, 1856.

On January 25, 1862, Daniel Wilson’s successor, George Cotton, had the honor of dedicating the cathedral. The Cathedral Church of the United Diocese gets dedicated by Archdeacon John Alleyne Beckles in 1870 after moving from the Diocese of Calcutta to the Diocese of Labuan and Sarawak in 1869.

Architecture

The current cathedral gets built with Madras chunam and has Neo-Gothic architecture as its finishing touch. Supposedly, parts of the design get inspired by Netley Abbey, a disused thirteenth-century church in Hampshire, England, which the architect MacPherson used as a model. The piers in the nave of Saint Andrew’s match the still-existing one at Netley well.

Three stained glass windows in the apse are devoted to three individuals who played significant roles in Singapore’s early colonial history, shown on the windows by their coats of arms. Sir Stamford Raffles is honored in the window in the center; John Crawfurd, Singapore’s first significant resident; and Major General William Butterworth, the governor who spearheaded the erection of the second church structure, are honored in the windows on the left and right, respectively. 

The Second World War, however, caused damage to the original stained glass windows. The stained glass window above the west door and the grey and red granite memorial monument with a Maltese cross on top in the gardens serve as tributes to MacPherson. Additionally, MacPherson Road was renamed Jalan Klapa in his honor. Added after the cathedral’s opening, the gallery at the West end was not originally part of MacPherson’s design. 

It has decorative components with foliated pillars and pilasters and crocketed arches. The church’s ties to the Anglican Communion in England and its support for the global See of Canterbury get symbolized by three items in Saint Andrew’s Cathedral.

The Canterbury Stone, sent from Canterbury Cathedral in 1936 and embedded in a pillar by the Lectern and holding a bronze replica of the Canterbury Cross, was placed there.