St. Stephen's Church, Udhagamandalam

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

St. Stephen's Church, Ooty (Udhagamandalam), Tamil Nadu, is one of the oldest churches in the Nilgiris district. Its foundation was laid on 23 April 1829 by Stephen Rumbold Lushington, then Governor of Madras, to mark King George IV’s birthday, and it was consecrated on 5 December 1830 by John Matthias Turner, Bishop of Calcutta. The church opened for public communion on Easter Sunday, 3 April 1831, and became part of the Church of South India in 1947. Architect Captain John James Underwood designed the building, which cost about Rs 24,000 to build. The main beam and much of the timber came from Tipu Sultan’s palace at Srirangapatna, transported up the Sigur ghat. Inside, there is a Last Supper painting on the western wall, and stained glass windows depicting scenes such as the crucifixion and Mary with baby Jesus. Instead of a bell, four hammer-like devices on inverted-V wooden planks are struck to produce sound. The pulpit sits to the left of the chancel, with a raised chancel and a vestry.