Mitchell Jones
18.7.2014
130 YEARS OF CHRIST
I hear the bells ringing. The dull roar of traffic, the pounding of feet, the idle chatter of
men and women waiting for the bus, none of it can stop the sudden, almost startling
noise of the bells. As the deep, brassy music cuts through the cacophony of modern day
life everyone around me pauses, their eyes subconsciously drawn across the busy street
to its source. For a moment there are only the bells, and then life floods back.
These bells ring at 10am on a crisp Sunday in Grafton, the winter sun doing little to
warm those who march along the pavement to their destinations. They signal the end of
the Sung Eucharist, an hour long service held by the Christ Church Cathedral, an
enormous building of towering arches and stained glass windows. The vast hall that had
been filled with the echoing songs of churchgoers is rapidly left empty. I sit and watch
the Cathedral’s flock mill around on the still dewy grass, sharing small talk before going
their separate ways, but the Cathedral remains open to all, as it has for so many years.
Designed by radical architect John Horbury Hunt, a man whose distinctive design style
was considered twenty years ahead of his peers, construction of the Christ Church
Cathedral began in 1884 and was completed in 1937. Its beautiful Gothic Revival style
construction saw it added to the Australian National Trust, an organization committed
to conserving Australia’s historical heritage.
The Christ Church Cathedral is the centre of the Diocese of Grafton, an area that covers
from the Queensland border to Port Macquarie in the south and to the Great Dividing
Range in the west. The Christ Church Cathedral has been a part of Grafton life for many
years, and on the 27th of July 2014 the Cathedral will be celebrating its 130th
Anniversary.
In its 130 years the Cathedral has affected the lives of many Grafton citizens such as
Eileen Roberts, who on 26 of June 1976 attended the wedding of her brother John Styles
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and Desley Greensill, the first wedding that was conducted by both an Anglican
Minister, Minister Folery, and a Catholic priest, Father Smith, in the Cathedral.
“Weddings in those times you didn’t have many outsiders, as families were so big then”,
she explains as she shows the old blue felt photo album, “Most of the seating was just
taken up by your relatives.”
It is a peculiar feeling seeing photos from 38 years ago and noting that nothing had
changed. The aisles where the guests sat, Styles to the right and Greensill’s to the left,
the alter where John and Desley were married, the entrance where the group photos
were taken, all the same as it was when I visited the Cathedral “It’s all still the same, I
don’t think anything has changed since John was married”, said Eileen as she returned
the album to its place next to the other memories of her loved ones.
During the Cathedral’s 125th anniversary Father Donald, the 7th Dean of Grafton, said the
Cathedral would still be standing strong in another 125 years. “I have no reason to
believe otherwise, it is such a solid building,” he said. “Buildings stay strong, alive and
upright when they are lived in and the Cathedral will continue to be loved and cared for
by the community”. Seeing the Cathedral, feeling its thick brick walls, sitting at the pews
worn smooth by countless visitors, listening to the bells ringing, it is hard to argue with
him. But in another 130 years I’m sure another writer will try.
WORD COUNT: 599
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