St John’s Cathedral is home to a community which seeks to bring the best of Anglican tradition into dialogue with the issues and needs of our day. The Cathedral community is inclusive and works to bring social justice and equity for all. The Cathedral itself, a renowned Brisbane landmark, serves as a magnet, where diverse people gather to worship, celebrate, seek solace, converse and learn. Some background on the building: St John’s Cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Brisbane, which was created in 1859. It was the vision of Bishop William Webber, the third Bishop of Brisbane, to build an Anglican Cathedral here and for this purpose he engaged as architect John Loughborough Pearson (1817—1897). Pearson had already designed Truro Cathedral in Cornwall. St John’s Cathedral emerges as a mixture of French and English Victorian Gothic Revival styles – and, interestingly, evokes many features of Barcelona Cathedral. All internal walls and ceilings are built of sandstone from Helidon, west of Brisbane. Sandstone from Pyrmont on the shores of Sydney Harbour was used externally for part of the first stage of construction only. The distinctive pink and lavender toned stone used for the external walls is known as ‘Brisbane Tuff’. St John’s Cathedral has the distinction of having the only fully stone–vaulted ceiling in Australia. After the Foundation Stone was laid in 1901, the building work proceeded in three stages: 1906—1910, 1964—1968 and 1989—2009. Today the Cathedral houses the Cathedra, the Archbishop’s official seat, and also serves many other functions. It is a Parish Church for the local congregation, a gallery space, a venue for musical performance, an historic building and a space for quiet reflection within a busy capital city.