Our Story
Amalgamation
Since January 1st 2018, two local Anglican Parishes have joined to become one (The Anglican Parish of Bondi & Waverley).
Our Vision and Mission and plans guide us as we make an even more positive impact in our local communities. We have an approach to being a church that seeks to be engaging, relevant and helpful in our area, encompassing Bondi Junction, Bondi, North Bondi , Bondi Beach, Tamarama, Bronte and Waverley.
Beach Site Launch
Beach Church at Bondi Anglican was launched in 2018. Motivated by a combined love of Jesus and Bondi a core team was formed and the adventure started. After months of prayer, reflection, contextualisation, and planning the 5 pm service was launched with the aim of being a church that connected and served the unique context of Bondi.
Long Term Gospel Presence
The traditional owners and carers of land in our area are the Bidgigal and Gadgigal people. These two clans of the Eora nation lived and worked in what we now call the eastern suburbs of Sydney long before it was claimed in 1770 by James Cook for Britain. Christians have been living and gathering in our part of Sydney ever since Sydney was first established as a British convict settlement in 1788. Tracts of land in Waverley and Bondi were given to settlers as land grants, then as people settled and built roads and buildings, including church buildings.
In 1857, a small stone building was built in Waverley to accommodate a new Anglican congregation. That congregation grew, and they had the grand neo gothic St Marys Church designed by Edmund Blackett and started in 1863 and opened in 1864. It became a key part of the local community.
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From St Mary’s, new churches were planted in Bondi with the St Matthews building built there in 1889. St Matthews then helped plant and establish a church in Bondi Beach, initially at Ben Buckler – St Barnabas in 1923, which was eventually relocated to Wairoa Avenue Bondi Beach as St Andrews in the 1950’s.
Since then, these three sites- St Mary’s Waverley, St Matthews Bondi and St Andrews Bondi Beach operated for most of that time as three separate parishes, then as two (Waverley and Bondi), and since 2018 as a single Parish entity. Our aim is to benefit our community innovatively and effectively with clear, faithful, and contextually appropriate Christian witness. We want to multiply our gatherings and ministries so more people can start following Jesus and living lives as his disciples.