St Stephen's Presbyterian Church is a heritage-listed former Presbyterian church at 2 Allowrie Street, Jamberoo, Municipality of Kiama, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Colley and built in 1875 by John and James Marks, D. L. Dymock and W. Stewart. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. The church building was sold to private interests in 2009.
History
The first white settlers came to the Jamberoo District during the 1820s following the initial granting of land rights, but it was not until the 1830s that the nucleus of a settlement evolved. Dr. Robert Menzies, a young Scottish naval doctor, and his wife Margaret, took up residence at Jamberoo on 6 May 1839, in a small cottage on their recently purchased property. They, in common with a number of other colonists from Scotland and from Northern Ireland, were of the Presbyterian communion. The importance they attached to their faith is illustrated by the fact that within a few months of their arrival Presbyterian services of worship were being conducted in Dr. Menzies' barn by the Rev. John Tait, MA, the first minister of the Church of Scotland in Illawarra. Mr. Tait preached from his home base in Wollongong as far south as the Shoalhaven from 1837 until his transfer to Parramatta in 1841. Dr. Menzies built "Minnamurra House" in the early 1840s, which still stands today. The barn in which the first Presbyterian service was held stood until 1940.
The township of Jamberoo was subdivided from Michael Hyam's grant in 1841. Mr. Hyam, a Jew, gave blocks to some of the Churches, including the Presbyterian. In 1842 a church-school was built by the Presbyterians on their land at a cost of $70. It was made of slabs and plastered inside being constructed in the main by voluntary labour. The building was used on Sundays as church and Sunday School; other denominations used it at times. On weekdays it served as a school. It appears to have been the first Church building in the southern Illawarra.
The Rev. Cunningham Atchison, who succeeded Mr. Tait in 1841, continued to minister to the whole of Illawarra and conducted services at Jamberoo as often as possible. Ministers of other denominations were also invited to conduct worship, and Dr. Menzies conducted the church services on occasions when no minister was available in Jamberoo.
The Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843 was followed by a Disruption in the Synod of Australia. The Jamberoo and Kiama Presbyterians gave their allegiance to the Free Church party and waited for their own minister from that Church. Until their minister arrived the congregation received strong leadership from Mr. Robert Taylor, a divinity student of the Free Church of Scotland.
The Rev. George Mackie, having arrived from Scotland, was inducted on 24 October 1849, at Jamberoo as Free Church minister of Leawarra and Shoalhaven, with Kiama as its centre. As the population grew, portions to the north and south were separated until the charge embraced only the districts centred upon Kiama and Jamberoo. Mr. Mackie exercised a fruitful ministry in the area until his translation to Victoria in 1857. He had resided at Jamberoo to late 1854 when he moved into the newly built Manse at Kiama.
The second Minister of Kiama-Jamberoo was the Rev. John Kinross, B.A., later D.D. Newly arrived from Scotland, he was ordained and inducted into the charge on 29 December 1858, and proved to be an outstanding pastor as well as a scholar. In 1861 he married Elizabeth, one of the four daughters of Dr. Menzies. John Kinross never severed his link with the area, for, even after his translation to the office of the first Principal of St. Andrew's College, University of Sydney, in 1875, he spent the long vacations in his cottage overlooking the Jamberoo township and its people whom he loved. He retired to and died in this cottage on 16 October 1908.
Early in the ministry of Dr. Kinross, 1862, the old Jamberoo Church was enlarged. In 1874 the congregation met and resolved to build a new and larger church to accommodate the increasing number of worshippers. John Colley, a member of one of the district's foremost pioneering families and a devout servant of the Church, drew up the plans and together with Messrs. John Marks, James Marks, D. L. Dymock, and W. Stewart superintended the construction of the present St. Stephen's which was opened and dedicated in the presence of over 1,500 people on Australia Day, 26 January 1876. The total cost was £1,060/19/1. The only debt remaining, that of £70, was cleared at the opening by a generous gift by the Messrs. Marks. The Church furnishings are made from some of the finest cedar to be seen anywhere.