The Dickson family worshipped at and supported All Saints Church, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane. All Saints is the oldest Anglican Church in Brisbane, opening on 8th September, 1869, replacing an earlier structure of 1862. Its style is nineteenth century gothic revival, with buttressed walls of rough faced rubble, porphyry and sandstone, and a metal clad roof. The interior has a fine example of a hammer-beam roof, which is rare in Australia.[1]
All Saints is Anglo-Catholic and offers Masses every day. On its website it proclaims
A Catholic Community
From its very beginning, All Saints' has been distinguished as a leading centre of the Catholic Revival within the Anglican Church. In other words, we are "mainstream Christians", believing and practising the ancient Catholic Faith in much the same way as it has been believed and practised by the vast majority of the baptized down through the centuries and throughout the world.
In most metropolitan cities of the English speaking world there is a church like All Saints' which by its proclamation of the full Catholic Faith, its careful celebration of the liturgy, and its cycle of Catholic prayer and devotion, reminds all Anglicans of their historic claim to be an integral part of the Catholic Church.
All Saints is located on a triangle of land between Ann Street and Wickham Terrace in the central business area of downtown Brisbane, and sits alongside high-rise office blocks. The small and well-kept garden areas around the church contain a number of sculptures and places to sit. Inside the church is comparatively plain. There are two plaques on the west wall – one to Annie Dickson, and the other to Sir James. Annie’s is small and unadorned, and bears the unsentimental words:
In Remembrance of
Annie Dickson
A Member of the Congregation
Of All Saints Church
Who Died at Toorak
Breakfast Creek, Brisbane
28th January 1880
Aged 40 Years
“She hath done what she could”.
By today’s standards and understanding of the role of women, this inscription is less than fulsome, particularly the reference to her having done what she could. Any woman who bore 15 children in the space of 22 years would these days be considered heroic! At the time of her death in 1880, however, it was not an unusual sentiment to inscribe on a plaque or a headstone in a cemetery, and had no connotation of limitation on the value of the woman concerned. The inscription on her headstone at Nundah Cemetery is, by contrast, imbued with both the sense of loss and of love James had for her.
The plaque for Sir James is a somewhat startling contrast. It is highly ornamented, inscribed with his full title and honorifics, and lists three of the significant political positions he held, and names both his place of birth and of death. The inscription is repeated (or taken from) the family headstone at Nundah Cemetery.
Sir James was a member of All Saints from its beginnings in 1862 and played a major role in support of the church, in particular advancing £400 at a time of financial strife, and in taking the Bishop to Court when he sold valuable property gifted to the Church. He presented a lectern, an altar cross, and candlesticks in 1884. The lectern was the large brass eagle which is still in use; the altar ornaments, the first to be used in Queensland, are also of brass, set with agates and are at present in use on the High Altar.
[1] http://www.allsaintsbrisbane.com/about_all_saints
All Saints is Anglo-Catholic and offers Masses every day. On its website it proclaims
A Catholic Community
From its very beginning, All Saints' has been distinguished as a leading centre of the Catholic Revival within the Anglican Church. In other words, we are "mainstream Christians", believing and practising the ancient Catholic Faith in much the same way as it has been believed and practised by the vast majority of the baptized down through the centuries and throughout the world.
In most metropolitan cities of the English speaking world there is a church like All Saints' which by its proclamation of the full Catholic Faith, its careful celebration of the liturgy, and its cycle of Catholic prayer and devotion, reminds all Anglicans of their historic claim to be an integral part of the Catholic Church.
All Saints is located on a triangle of land between Ann Street and Wickham Terrace in the central business area of downtown Brisbane, and sits alongside high-rise office blocks. The small and well-kept garden areas around the church contain a number of sculptures and places to sit. Inside the church is comparatively plain. There are two plaques on the west wall – one to Annie Dickson, and the other to Sir James. Annie’s is small and unadorned, and bears the unsentimental words:
In Remembrance of
Annie Dickson
A Member of the Congregation
Of All Saints Church
Who Died at Toorak
Breakfast Creek, Brisbane
28th January 1880
Aged 40 Years
“She hath done what she could”.
By today’s standards and understanding of the role of women, this inscription is less than fulsome, particularly the reference to her having done what she could. Any woman who bore 15 children in the space of 22 years would these days be considered heroic! At the time of her death in 1880, however, it was not an unusual sentiment to inscribe on a plaque or a headstone in a cemetery, and had no connotation of limitation on the value of the woman concerned. The inscription on her headstone at Nundah Cemetery is, by contrast, imbued with both the sense of loss and of love James had for her.
The plaque for Sir James is a somewhat startling contrast. It is highly ornamented, inscribed with his full title and honorifics, and lists three of the significant political positions he held, and names both his place of birth and of death. The inscription is repeated (or taken from) the family headstone at Nundah Cemetery.
Sir James was a member of All Saints from its beginnings in 1862 and played a major role in support of the church, in particular advancing £400 at a time of financial strife, and in taking the Bishop to Court when he sold valuable property gifted to the Church. He presented a lectern, an altar cross, and candlesticks in 1884. The lectern was the large brass eagle which is still in use; the altar ornaments, the first to be used in Queensland, are also of brass, set with agates and are at present in use on the High Altar.
[1] http://www.allsaintsbrisbane.com/about_all_saints