Welcome to the website of The Cathedral Church of St Alban the Martyr, in Griffith NSW. One of the great architectural treasures of the City of Griffith, this beautiful space is open everyday for quiet prayer and reflection between 9am and 6pm.
For our service times, please see our services page.
St Alban the Martyr Anglican Cathedral is the flagship building for the Diocese of the Riverina and plays an significant role in the history of the City of Griffith.
The parish itself was established in 1920 and offers a place of worship and ministry for the people of Griffith and the surrounding areas of Yenda, Yoogali, Hanwood and Rankin Springs.
Building a sense of community is important to us, not only for our parishioners, but also for the wider community. The parish of Griffith offers the services of their Anglican Opportunity shop on the Cathedral grounds.
Expressing our love for God is often best enjoyed through the arts and so we are proud to have a church choir, team of bell ringers, organists and volunteer florists, all of whom embrace the Holy Spirit in their gifts.
We’re always keen to see new faces and hope to welcome you to one of our services soon.
Our Clergy
The Very Reverend Thomas M Leslie
Dean of St Alban’s Cathedral, Rector of the Parish of Griffith.
Fr Thomas was ordained for the Diocese of Wangaratta, and served in roles as a School Chaplain, Parish Priest, Cathedral Canon, and in Prison Ministry, before his Installation as the 5th Dean of St Albans in 2021. Interested in Art, History, gardening, and theatre, Fr Thomas also enjoys choral music, is trying to be more motivated about the gym, and has published articles about liturgy and Anglican vesture.
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The Reverend Louise Osborne
Mother Louise is honourary assistant priest at Griffith Cathedral. She was the first woman to be ordained deacon in the Riverina, on 30 November 1996, by Bishop Bruce Clark. Mother Louise’s long history in the Parish gives her strong connections to the community of Griffith. She takes services at Scalabrini, takes services monthly at the Cathedral, ministers to a home church in Yenda, teaches scripture each week at local schools, and undertakes pastoral visiting, not to mention also managing the Cathedral Op-Shop (Open Thurs & Fri, 10am-2pm). .
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History
The original parish of Griffith was established in 1920 during the initial years of the town’s growth. The first services were held in the town picture theatre before a Rectory (Priests House) was built in 1923. A church of humble beginnings, Weddings and Baptisms were conducted in the lounge room of the Rectory until the Church Hall was dedicated and opened by the then Bishop of London, A.F. Winninton-Ingram, on the 22nd of March 1927.
In September 1937, the groundwork for the building of a church was laid by a Griffith Parish delegation, led by the Parish Priest, Fr W.G. Bennett and in 1947 the Architect Louis R. Williams was commissioned to design a church which would be “spacious, lofty, seating around 300 in the Nave with ample room for extra seating, cloistered aisles, Chapel, Choir Gallery, separate Baptistry, good vestry accommodation, no doors opening to the southwest and to be free of any dust-catching ornamentation”.
St Alban’s combines modern and traditional architecture, designed for Australian conditions and was described by Louis Williams as “20th Century Gothic”.
18 years after the foundations were laid, the Church of St Alban the Martyr was opened and dedicated by the Bishop on Saturday, 16th April, 1955. An affair not to be missed, the Bishop was greeted with a fanfare of trumpets and crowd of approximately 750 people seated inside the church and a further 1200 celebrating the opening outside.
On Tuesday, 1st May 1984, as part of the Riverina Diocese Centenary celebrations, St Alban’s Church at Griffith became the Cathedral of the Diocese. Barry Hunter, the seventh Bishop of Riverina, knocked at the West Doors three times to claim St Alban’s as the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Riverina and was placed in his Cathedra (Bishop’s Throne) by the Archdeacon of the Riverina.