St Thomas Church

St Thomas Church is an Anglican church on Johnson Road, near Bahadur Shah Park, built there between 1819 and 1821, possibly with the help of convicts from the city jail. It is also called the Church of Bangladesh.  There is a square clock tower with arch windows, rising in two stages.  The delicate stone and brickworks of this white plastered building are still as immaculate as they have always been.  A small porch leads to the entrance of the church supported on four columns of perpendicular gothic design above the entrance.

The church was inaugurated by Bishop Reginald Heber of Calcutta on 10 July 1824, during a visit to the city.  It has served as the cathedral church since 1951. 

Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists in East Bengal, and various Methodist and Baptist bodies joined together to form the Church of Pakistan in the early 1970s. After Bangladesh won its independence in 1971, the Diocese of Dhaka emerged from the Church of Pakistan as the independent Church of Bangladesh.  In 2005 the church authority undertook a massive renovation programme. The archaeologist, Sufi Mostafizur Rahman, wrote: ‘Though the church is small in size, it is one of the most attractive ones in Bangladesh.’.