ST ANDREW’S CATHEDRAL, the symbolic heart of the Sydney Anglican Diocese, has an enviable location in the centre of the city’s CBD. On George Street next to the grand Sydney Town Hall, it is just a stone’s throw from the main public transport networks, Sydney’s major shopping complexes and the tourist precinct. In the past, the passing crowd in George Street could not fail to notice its main doors standing open in warm invitation.

Not any longer. In 2000, in a major restoration of its magnificent 136-year-old neo-Gothic interior, the cathedral was reoriented. Now its doors are positioned on the opposite side, facing an internal plaza connecting the cathedral not with the city, but with diocesan headquarters.[i] These days, a casual visitor could find it a daunting experience even to locate a cathedral entrance.