St Mark’s Anglican Church in Picton will re-open on 23rd July 2017, 413 days after the Picton Storm. This marks the completion of Stage One of repairs to the Church.
All are welcome to our Re-opening service at 9:30am, to be followed by a BBQ lunch, history tour and festivities within the grounds. The collection taken up during the service will be divided 50/50 between Church and cemetery repair projects. The service will include musical accompaniment by the Wollondilly Anglican College Strings musical group and choir. The Church will be open for a few hours following the service for anyone who wants to come and take a look.
Congregation member, Brad Kitchen recalls that fateful day on 5th June 2016, ‘I was leading prayers when the power suddenly cut out and microphone went dead’. The service concluded amidst heavy rain, but no-one anticipated that 2 metres of water would surge through the building that evening.
Rev Ben Boardman commented, ‘It has been a long 413 days, but we’re thankful for the support of Wollondilly Shire Council, our Insurers, and our builder, Pagewood Constructions. We’re also particularly thankful to God for the resilience he’s given to his people in the inconveniences and difficulties of the past year.
This is not the ‘grand opening’ and there is still plenty of work to be done on the building, including storage, a bathroom and the reinstallation of a pipe organ. We will be sure to invite everyone along to celebrate with us when the refurbishments are finally complete. After the re-opening on the 23rd July, weekly services will again be held at St Mark’s at 9:30am and everyone is welcome to join us any Sunday. The facility will also be open for special celebrations like baptisms, weddings and funerals.
One particular item that we’d love to get help with is the repair of the damaged grave sites in the Pioneer Cemetery, which has been estimated at $70,000-250,000. The cemetery has enormous historical significance and is not covered by any insurance policy. We’re preparing to launch an appeal to crowdfund some of this work, and details are available on our website: https://pwac.org.au.
Further information including photos and video can be found on our website (https://pwac.org.au) or Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/pictonanglican/).
Yours sincerely,
Rev Ben Boardman
Picton & Wilton Anglican Churches
