The oldest church in the city of Pune is the St. Mary’s Church that is situated in Cantonment camp of Pune.

This church was constructed in the year 1820 and people started worshipping the church from 3rd of July in 1825. In its initial days the only people allowed to worship the church were the higher rank officers of British military who belonged to an England church that was also known as an Anglican church. Later the believers of Anglican Church were also allowed to worship the church. Even the general public who had there faith in Christianity was later allowed to offer their prayers in Church.

This Church later became the part of Anglican churches that were the part of churches in northern parts of the country India during the year 1970. The Church still follows the traditional practices. The initial days the Church had only few visitors but later many families join the Church for worshipping and in today’s time the Church has around 300 families who practice the beliefs of this Anglican Church. These people come with a belief and follow a tradition of offering worship on three Sundays that include two Sundays following the traditional patterns while on one of the Sundays they follow modern way of worshipping practices. The other practice is done on mornings of weekdays. The family members also come together to take part in many activities.

History of Church

British were the people who came with the intentions of doing trade with India. Later they became so powerful and started ruling over India and thus India became is part of British Empire. The British military set up a large cantonment in the areas of city of Pune and the outskirt area known as Khadki or Kirkee. Later the military officials decided to build a church in the area for worshipping. This led to the construction of the Churches that had links to garrison churches. This is considered to be the oldest Church in the city of Pune and nearby places. Lieut. Nash along with the engineers of East India Company constructed the Church. The western end of the church is conquered by the amalgamation of lath and plaster.
The northern end has a vestry while the southern part of the tower has a room of lamp that is located on the ground level while the southern end also has stairs that lead to a gallery. The inner part of the Church is as high as 97 feet that is part of the western entrance of Church while the length from northern end to southern end is 88 feet long. The central part of the church is as high as 103 feet. There are a total of eight pillars that are part of either sides of naïve with four pillars on each side that is covered with plaster of chuna that resemble mostly like marble.

Activities in Church

Worship

The worshipper’s committee work together along with Presbyter to allow a maximum number of worshippers to seek the blessings for the prayers they offer. The members of the committee assign the responsible to various members to perform the tasks like ushers, Intercession, Script readers and a person who gets the responsibility of carrying Oblations to an Altar table.

The other tasks performed by this committee are the organizing of contemporary service of worship that is organized on Sundays at 11 in morning. The few of the other activities performed by this committee is organizing the Alpha Course.

Stewardship

The Sub-committee of the Church had been progressively working on promoting more and more people to join the Church life and hence spreading more and more awareness among the people. The committee also started an operation where a survey was carried out to upgrade the details of family members, their address and contact details who are also the members of Church.

A directory has always been maintained with the information of the members who are part of Church. The upgraded data is always collected and updated in the directory of the Church. The members who belong to this Church are encouraged to participate in the various activities of the church, to mention few of the activities of the Church are choir, fellowships of interest groups, study of Bible etc. and these were also further allotted to few subordinates who took the initiative of spreading the fellowships and encouraged more and people to join them.

The members who are part of the Church are wished by the Presbyter on the special occasions of their lives like birthdays and anniversaries. The kids who had finished schooling were benefitted by the career counseling programs that were organized by the committee members of the Church for helping them seeking a right choice in their careers. Since its first camp the church has been every year religiously organizing this camp for the youth members of the church.

Outreach

The Church committee is also involved in many social activities. They are also involved in financial support to the individuals or organizations through various policies.

They have also a successful project running through it named as Pastors’ Children’s Education.

Contact Us

Address:

St. Mary's Church (C.N.I.)

1-A Sholapur Road, Camp

Pune – 411001

India

Office: +91 20 26361207 / 64013534

Email: [email protected]

How to Reach

By Air

The airport of Pune is situated at a distance of 10 km from the city of Pune. The area where the airport is located is known as Lohegaon. Taxi can be hired at are very nominal charge of Rs 200 to travel between the city of Pune and airport. The flights ply to and fro from all the major cities of the country. There are many flights that fly from Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai to Pune. To reach the city of Pune from any international location, one can take connecting flights from the city of Mumbai that has an international airport.

By Train

One of the major rail head in the country of India is Pune that is very well networked with the other major cities and states of the state and the country.

By Road

The state government runs the buses that ply in the cities of state Maharashtra and thus provides a well-connected mode of road travel between Pune and other cities of Maharashtra. The private operators run the luxury buses between Pune and other states and cities of the country and few of the major cities includes Goa, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The buses cover a distance of approximately 200 kms while travelling between Pune and Mumbai.