Diocese of calcutta

38-B, Ananda Palit Road, Kolkata-700 014 : Sunday Worship Service Timing – 8:00 am

During the third decade of the twentieth century the then priest of St. Saviour’s Church (an Anglican Bengali speaking church) of the Diocese of Calcutta, Rev. Kunja Behari Ghosh noticed that a good number of Bengali speaking members of the church resided at the opposite side of Lower Circular Road and Entally. Perhaps due to the distance those members did not attend the church service regularly. Rev. Kunja Behari Ghosh had the vision to build a new church near Entally for these Christians.
Rev. Kunja Behari worked very hard and prudently to make his dream a reality.
Bishop’s House found a plot of land at Park Circus for the new church but Rev. Ghosh convinced the Rt. Rev. Foss Westcott the then Metropolitan of India (Undivided India-Burma-Ceylon) and with his blessings, great initiative was taken by Rev. Kunja Behari. Land was purchased at then 66, Ananda Palit Road, Kolkata 7 00 014, where the dream of Rev. Kunja Behari Ghosh was realised. It was the 11th of June 1935 when the Metropolitan Westcott laid the foundation stone of St. George’s Church. The new church building was completed in an Indian style and furnished in the month of December 1935. But on 1st January 1936 the Metropolitan Westcott dedicated the church in the presence of five hundred Christian believers. It was dedicated according to Anglican Church traditions. The Metropolitan knocked on the west door and then the Secretary Sushil Kumar Biswas opened the door and welcomed the Metropolitan to dedicate the church. In the dedication service, Metropolitan Westcott used the chalice and patton, which was gifted by St. George’s Church at Aelthaton in Lancashire. After the dedication service there was a fellowship lunch in which the first Bengali Bishop Sisir Tarafdar, who was ordained on 1st January 1936, also joined in. The total expenditure incurred for construction of St. George’s Church was about Rs. 20,000/-. The funds for this came as a donation from Bishop Lefroy Memorial Trust, an Endowment fund, which was generated according to the will of Bishop Lefroy, who donated all his assets for the development of Indian churches. The massive bell, which is being used even today was removed from Oxford Mission Vivekananda Road, Kolkata and donated by it to St. George’s Church. Rev. Father Carlton of Oxford Mission rededicated the bell.
A remarkable day for the church was on Easter Monday 1959, when the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Ramsay Michael visited the church and appreciated it highly. Rev. Sushil Chatterjee was the priest during that glorious time. An important contribution of St. George’s Church to the Diocese of Calcutta is the Bengali Sung Eucharist. The Bengali tune was composed by Sri. Mohan Bhattacharjee and the St. George’s Choir sang the first Bengali Sung Eucharist, which is still followed in the Bengali churches of the Diocese of Calcutta. Rev. John Gonsalves and Rev. T. A. P. Biswas, both priests of St. George’s Church, were the mentors for the Bengali Sung Eucharist.
In 2010, St. George’s Church celebrated its Platinum Jubilee year.