We call it “the rocket Church”. I mean come one! How can
you not? Take a good look. That unique looking steeple, that looks like the
body of a rocket, complete with nose cone, and on both sides of the entrance,
you see the way the walls are sloping? That looks like tail fins, right? The
books say that the Church is typically Gothic in architecture, and that
steeple, while unique, was never meant to look like a rocket. It was meant to
look like a ship’s lantern from the old days. The reason why a Church with a
steeple like a ship’s lantern is located on Diamond Harbour Road is simple
enough to understand. The Kidderpore docks are nearby, and therefore, this area
would have been filled with seafaring people. This would have been the first
Church anyone would see when travelling East towards the city after
disembarking from a ship.
The foundation stone was laid on the 6th
of January, 1844, by the Governor General, Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough, along
with the Venerable Archdeacon The Right Rev Thomas Dealtry. The Church was
consecrated in 1846. Back then, this Church may have been where the Governor
General worshipped, when living at Belvedere, which is now the national
library. The structures along the Church’s perimeter wall look like they could
have been stables. In 1848, it was established as a Chaplaincy and in 1870 it became
a parish church. Anglican in origin, the Church continues to maintain Anglican
traditions in its services, Matins, Said-Eucharist, Sung-Eucharist and
Evening-Song. Congregants inform us that all services, since inception, have
been in English.
The uniqueness in the external architectural features
extends to the interiors as well. On both sides of the altar are two closets,
which may have been meant for nuns, who may have received their communion
through windows in the closets. On the walls are many plaques, the older among
them commemorating European dead, while the considerably newer ones are Indian.
Among the older plaques is one for Edgar Belhouse, 3rd officer of
the ship Khyber, who was drowned in the Hooghly on 11th May, 1890.
There is a very large and extremely beautiful stained glass window behind the
altar, as well as a rather magnificent pulpit, but I suspect that may be new
and only designed to look old. The Church also has its original organ, though
whether it can still be played, I do not know. 
Like many of Calcutta’s colonial era buildings, St.
Stephen’s was done in by Independence. As the mostly British congregants left
India, the congregation dwindled, and the Church fell into disuse in the 60’s.
Lack of funds leading to lack of maintenance, led to one of the beams of the
ceiling collapsing, the roof springing numerous leaks, and the windows disintegrating.
Squatters encroached on parts of the Church’s grounds. But things turned around
in 2013, when congregants decided to take action, and secure funds through a
campaign via social media. The Church’s Facebook page solicited donations,
bricks to be used for the reconstruction could be bought for Rs. 500 and each
brick would have the donor’s name on it. The necessary funds were ultimately secured,
and Church was restored to her former glory. Unfortunately it has not been
possible to save any of the original marble flooring. The marble now in use was
donated by a congregant in memory of his late infant son. 
St. Stephen’s is in great shape now, and has a decent
sized gathering for Sunday Mass. Many of the congregants are students of the
adjacent St. Thomas School. The warmth and openness of the Church authorities
is something that I found quite remarkable. We are used to being shooed away on our Sunday photography trips but
here there were no hassles about taking photographs and we were even offered
cups of piping hot tea. The Lord works in mysterious ways!
- by Deepanjan Ghosh
SOURCES
Churches of Calcutta - Pijush Kanti Roy
10 Walks in Calcutta – Prasenjit Das Gupta
http://cnicalcutta.org/churches.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dealtry
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