St Mary's Anglican Church

St Mary's Church Anglican was built under the direction of Reverend Martin Rogers and opened in July 1923.
Previously services had been held in island homes, notably in William Glass's ordinal house and in Captain Andrew Hagan's home which was for many years the largest house in the Settlement.
This 1978 stamp has used a recent painting by the Swedish artist Roland Svensson who was the subject of a tribute article in the March 2005 Tristan da Cunha Newsletter.

St Mary's Church in 1982

St Mary's Church was built in typical Tristan building style - gable ends hewn by axe from the soft volcanic tuff found in the cliffs behind the Settlement, wood inside gleaned from shipwrecks, a tin coated corrugated steel roof making providing a noisy accompaniment to hymns and prayers during rain storms. The bell was obtained from a shipwreck, and volcanic stone has been used to make a boundary wall to protect the treasured garden with hydrangeas seen here in bloom on a sunny summer afternoon.

St Joseph's Catholic Church

A March 2005 view of St Joseph's Church, built in 1995/6 to replace a smaller church on the same site built in 1983.
The Roman Catholic faith was brought to Tristan by two Irish sisters, Elizabeth and Agnes Smith who had married Tristan men who returned to settle in 1908. Their descendants are the core of an active Catholic community which celebrates mass every Sunday at 9am.
The Tristan lay ministers are Dereck Rogers, Anne Green and James Glass, who are all grandchildren of Agnes Smith.