Photo courtesy of Martin Lang.
St Mark’s Church, Currawong, will celebrate 100 years of services on Saturday 14th September 2019. All are invited to a 10am service with the Bishop followed by morning tea. There will be an opportunity to catch up with fellow parishioners, descendants of the original congregation and all who have been involved with St Mark’s.
St Mark’s the building tells the story of generosity, renewal and community. The following details are extracted from ‘The Church in a Paddock: Celebrating 100 Years of St Mark’s Church Currawong’, a book written by Don Jamieson which will be launched at the celebration.
The building was built out of the great war with the foundation stone laid nine months before peace was declared on 11 November 1918. The building is situated on 5 acres of land generously given by Mr W.C.H. Roberts with its funding coming from W.C.H. Roberts (Currawong), Victoria Roberts (Currawong) and S.E. Roberts (Tiverton).
The buildings’ walls are built from beautiful picked blue granite sourced from the Currawong estate, and as the walls rose it became a fitting symbol of the peace that was being sought in the “war to end wars”. The roof and belfry are tiled, and the pointings around the windows and doors and above the massive buttresses are of red brick. The style of architecture is Norman with the plans prepared by the rector, the Rev. Henry Hamilton Crigan, who also supervised building work. The builders were Messrs Millard and Sons of Young. Inside the church, the Nave is so planned that the roof is said to represent the keel floor and beams of a ship. The Sanctuary is tiled in red and black whilst the altar steps are of white marble.
The opening and consecration of the church occurred on Sunday 11 May 1919 with close to 600 people in attendance.
St Mark’s held services continuously following consecration until the end of 1956. No services at all are recorded between the beginning of 1957 and the end of 1961. Services returned in 1962 and continued through to 1975. No regular services were held from the beginning of 1976 to the end of 1980 although there was a wedding in 1976 and a funeral and baptism in 1977. Some services were held in 1981 through to 1985, but there no services held in 1986, 1987 and 1988. Some incidences of vandalism and theft occurred in 1986 and in July of that year it was noted the church building was now unsuitable for conducting services.
It seemed that the end was nigh for the church of St Mark’s … the Day of Reckoning was approaching.
A special meeting was called by Parish Council on 6 December 1988 to consider the future of St Mark’s. At that meeting Mr Noel Davison was asked to undertake a survey to ascertain whether there was a possibility of a continuing viable congregation at St Mark’s. A Currawong committee was also established, consisting of Mrs Judy Jackson, Mr Barry Thorsby and Mr Noel Davison, to determine the necessary work and associated costs of restoring the church to use and to secure the building from further theft and vandalism.
In April 1989 the Parish Council composed a letter to the Currawong committee advising them that Council intended to begin proceedings for the disposal of the land and buildings at its May meeting. The Currawong committee were invited to bring any input they may have to that meeting.
By the September 1989 meeting of Parish Council, Noel Davison was able to report that twelve families had donated cash, paint and labour to the value of $8500. He went on to advise that the fence and gate would be repaired by voluntary labour and that normal maintenance would be carried out by the Currawong congregation. A request was made for a service once a month and the Rector and Council happily granted that request nominating the first Sunday in the month at 8am as the service time. The first Holy Communion service in many years was celebrated by the Rev. Christopher Elliott at 8am on Sunday, 1 October 1989. Monthly services have been held continuously since then with the church re-dedicated on 4 November 1999. The Harden Express carried a story under the banner – COMMUNITY STRENGTH REBUILDS CURRAWONG – in the weeks leading up to the re-dedication service.
St Mark’s renewal continues with services held at 8am on the first Sunday of every month along with special Easter and Christmas services. Morning tea follows every service except the Christmas service. All are invited.
Respect is paid to Judy and John Windsor, Barry Thorsby, Noel Davison, Judy Jackson, Helen McKay, and all those they encouraged to become part of the movement to save St Mark’s as a functional church in which the Currawong community and their guests can gather, worship and form Christian Community. This followed on earlier efforts by the Roberts, Davisons, Kings, Coddingtons, Webbs, Kirks and others in establishing and maintaining the church.
As we go through another generational change, we need to ask the question of some of the younger families, whether St Mark’s Currawong is as important to them as it was to those who led the congregation in 1989.
