SERVICE TIMES St Edward the Confessor – 16 East Terrace, Kensington Gardens 5068 Tel: 8332 1269 Service Times  First Sunday of the month          Sung Eucharist APBA 8.30am Second Sunday of the month     Family Service 10:30am. 45 minutes, Sung Eucharist. Third Sunday of the month         Sung Eucharist with healing ministry  8.30am Fourth Sunday of the month       Sung Eucharist 10.30am. When there is a 5th Sunday in the month, please contact the Parish Office for details.

HISTORY OF THE ANGLICAN PARISH OF KENSINGTON GARDENS

Vision: “To know Christ and to make him known.”

It is supposed that the ministry of the Church of England was being offered in Kensington Gardens by The Rev’d Harvey Ebbs circa 1910, from the neighbouring Parish of Magill, of which he was the Incumbent 1910–1914.

The first building was erected on the present site and dedicated for worship by the fourth Bishop of Adelaide, The Right Rev’d Arthur Nutter Thomas, on Wednesday 4th February, 1914 at 8:00 p.m. It is reported that a bushfire was raging in the near vicinity at the time. In June of that year the pastoral care of the congregation was given into the hands of the Rev’d John Warren, the Rector of St David’s, Burnside. He was responsible for the Cure of Souls in Kensington Gardens for the following twenty-four years – the longest incumbency of this Parish.

While all the early written records refer to “The Kensington Gardens Mission Hall,” there is a credible oral tradition which asserts that the first building was known as “St Patrick’s”. In 1927, when the congregation had become sufficiently well established and financially secure, a new church was erected on the site and the original building became used as the Parish Hall.Parish meetings were then able then to be held in the Parish Hall rather than in the club rooms of the local Bowling Club.Parishioners petitioned the bishop that the dedication of the new church should be that of St Edward the Confessor.

The original plan made provision for two extra bays for the nave and an imposing bell tower, but that section of the building had to be omitted in the interest of economy. The church is an intimate building, seating 90 people, and is built in the Italianate style. The Architect was Kenneth Milne of Adelaide.

By 1936 the Parish of Kensington Gardens was established and a Priest in Charge appointed. The debt on the church was repaid in 1953. Ten years later, the Rectory was built and occupied by the first Rector of the Parish, the Rev’d Gordon Williams.

St Peter’s Collegiate Girls School was founded by the Community of the Sisters of the Church on a site in North Adelaide in 1849. In 1957 the school relocated to a larger site in Stonyfell and made a connection with St Edward’s. The Sisters attended St Edward's for worship, as did the first Lay Headmistress, Miss. E. Pike. The Rector of St Edward’s acted as the Chaplain to the School. A full-time school Chaplain was appointed in 1982. An informal but important relationship remains between the St. Peter's Collegiate School community, and the Parish of Kensington Gardens.

In the years following the Second World War the Parish enjoyed a succession of three priests of decided Tractarian persuasion who established St Edward’s in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Anglican Church. Today, the church honours the dignity of its tradition and history while operating as a vital christian community that is open minded, accepting and encourages genuine exploration of what it might mean to have faith in God in the 21st century.