1 0 . The Church (1837) Doing God’s work Church services were originally held in the open air, weather permitting. They were held in the Commissariat Store 1834-37 until this church was built. Much of its decorative stonework and interior joinery was the work of Point Puer boys. The large windows were of plain glass, and the highly ornate three-tiered pulpit was carved by a convict craftsman. The Church and the Commandant’s House stand on the highest ground at either end of the site, expressing the absolute authority of God and the State, and their earthly representatives the Parson and the Commandant. Religion was most energetically engaged in the process of reform. Everyone had to attend church. Each Sunday up to 1100 people worshipped here. The convicts were marched to the Church by armed guards, who escorted them inside and, grounding their arms with a resounding clatter on the stone-flagged floor, remained on guard with loaded rifles until the service was over. A visitor remarked that this ‘destroyed the solemnity of worship …’ The convicts sat in the body of the building, and the free people sat on raised wooden pews to the left and right, behind a curtain. Although we do not know which sermons were delivered, sermons at this time stressed the virtues of obedience to the laws of both God and the King, for both prisoners and free people. According to Commissariat Clerk Thomas Lemprière; ‘the preacher thundered until my head ached’. A choir of well-behaved convicts‘ sang hymns and chanted the psalms ‘with considerable effect’.
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