St Mary's Community

Characteristics:
St Mary's is the oldest church in the Parish of Newcastle and has been well cared for especially in recent years, being fully renovated to its original glory.  St Mary's is popular with all parishioners (many having been married at St Mary's).  It is a smaller church and thus particularly popular with brides.  Marriages are perfomed there almost every week of the year.

The congregation of approximately 80 celebrate the Eucharist together at 7.30 am each Sunday.  You will be made to feel welcome as St Benedict demands, "We welcome everyone as Christ".  It's a traditional church and we follow a traditional (but not old fashioned) liturgy.

Aside from Sunday Eucharist, St Mary's during Lent has a weekly service including the celebration of the Word with communion.  Then, in preparationn for Christmas, there are four weekly Advent celebrations of the Word with communion, both normally at 5.30 pm.  These are well attended by members not just from St Mary's Mass community, but from throughout Newcastle Parish.

St Mary's is a restored heritage sandstone church building.  It now has a wide central aisle and countersunk sanctuary lighting.

The wonderful atmosphere in and around St Mary's is largely due to its architectre and its position high above Newcastle Harbour.  Click here for a description of this restored heritage building and for a taste of how our community has used and cared for it over more than 130 years.

Brief history:
The Parish of Newcastle was established in 1838 and originally covered all of the English settlement in what is now the City of Newcastle.

As population grew other parishes were split off from the Parish of Newcastle, including Hamilton, established in 1884.  For a couple of years, the area which subsequently became the parish of Burwood (Merewether) was part of the Hamilton parish before being returned to Newcastle parish in 1887, to become established as an independent parish in 1891.  Later again, this parish was divided and Merewether Beach became an independent parish in 1939.  In 1997 the three communities of Newcastle, Merewether and Merewether Beach came together again and now form the present Parish of Newcastle.

St Mary's Church, on the Hill overlooking Newcastle Harbour, was completed in 1866.  This beautiful Victorian church was remodelled in 1933, at which time many of its internal features were altered.

Work was commenced in 1999 to restore the church to its former glory, under the watchful eye of the National Trust of Australia (NSW).  After two years of painstaking work significant termite damage was discovered, which resulted in the church being temporarily closed from July 2002.

St Mary's was reopended with weddings in November 2006 and the restored church was officially reopened and blessed on St Patrick's Day 2007, exactly 141 years after its original opening.

Click here for a more detailed history of St Mary's , including a list of the Parish Priests.