A Step Back In Time to our 150th celebration in 2018
We celebrated 150 years of our Church in Barwon Heads on Sunday 1st October 2018. This is an extract from the order of service distributed on the day:
THE STORY SO FAR
WELCOME to today’s service which takes place just one day short of being exactly 150 years since a meeting put Barwon Heads on the Geelong Circuit (Methodist) preaching plan. As a result, the Circuit Schedule for December 1868 included Barwon Heads and by early 1869 a weekly service was being held at 3.00 pm and a monthly service at 7.30 pm. Those services were thought to be conducted in the open air and in private homes.
The church was built in 1873 off Cameron’s Road before it was removed to the present site in 1891 or 1892. The section removed is the front part of the church and was transported on a jinker drawn by horses. This was added to what is now the transept portion which had been erected earlier.
Over the years the building was extended and, in 1942, an additional section was built on the rear of the church for use as a Sunday School. Five years later a larger building for Sunday School was acquired in the form of an army hut. In turn, it was replaced by a hall from the Ingamells Ocean Grove campsite in 1995.
Beginning as part of the Geelong (Yarra Street) Circuit, the Barwon Heads congregation was also part of the Belmont, Queenscliff and Bellarine circuits at various times until the inauguration of the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977 when, along with the Connewarre Presbyterian Church, it became part of the Ocean Grove Uniting Church Parish.
At the end of 1989, the decision was reluctantly taken to close services at Barwon Heads but thanks to the hard work of dedicated members, the support of the Ocean Grove congregation, many prayers and God’s guiding hand, services resumed in April 1992.
The past 25 years have seen the church playing an important part in the local community as a place for worship, baptisms, weddings and funerals as well as a location for a range of groups who use our hall. In that regard, there are many similarities with the life of the church over 150 years.
We give thanks to God for the people who have witnessed and served in our church community for the past 150 years and look forward to the future with faith and hope under God’s loving direction.
