This congregation began in 1842 when 22 communicants left
Scots Church during the ministry of
John Dunmore Lang and met in a hall in Macquarie Place. In 1846 it
moved to the Wesleyan Chapel in Macquarie Street and in 1848 to the
Independent Chapel in Pitt Street adjoining the Sydney School of Arts.
During the Gold Rush the congregation imported a prefabricated Iron Church, seating 800, which
was erected in 1855 on the State Library site next to Parliament House. It was here that the
name St Stephen's was taken - the Westminster Parliament having met in St Stephen's Chapel
from 1543 to 1834.
In 1875 St Stephen's joined with another congregation in Phillip Street and became a leading
centre of Presbyterianism. The NSW General Assembly met in St Stephen's Phillip
Street when it first convened in 1901.
The Sydney City Council resumed the Phillip Street Church to extend Martin Place through to
Macquarie Street. In 1935 St Stephen's dedicated the fine, newly built Church which stands on
its present positionin Macquarie Street.
St Stephen's Macquarie Street entered a new stage in 1977 as a
congregation of the Uniting Church in Australia upon Union of the Congregational, Methodist
and Presbyterian Churches.
St Stepens Website