By Mackenzie Holland
St Andrews Uniting Church in Richmond spent last Saturday fundraising, with every sausage and cake sold helping to protect the history of the church built in 1845. $1800 was raised between the two stalls to help finance the renovation of the church ceiling.
The Church also runs other activities through the year such as community lunches – the next one is the 26 September – and the Spring Fair is on the 19 October.
On Election Day church members hosted their own democracy sausage sizzle and cake stall. The auditorium on the church grounds doubled as a polling booth as volunteers served up post-voting lunch and sweet treats.
While church grounds being home to a polling venue may be out of the ordinary, it allows St Andrews to serve their community in more ways and raise money to maintain their church. Denise Aslin, a member of the Church Council, and Beryl Hedges, a member of the Pastoral Leaders Team discussed the importance of the church. As Denise puts it – “It’s an Icon” that they feel needs to be preserved for the whole town.
George Bowman donated the prime spot in the middle of Richmond for a church to be built in 1845 and paid for its erection. The church was formerly called St Andrews Presbyterian Church but in 1977 the Congregational, Presbyterian and Methodist churches came into union to form the Uniting Church.
Over the years the church has seen many upgrades with the church even shutting down in 1987 for five years of restoration work. Throughout those years the Heritage Commission aided with the repairs to the foundations, restoration of timber pews and panelling, installation of damp coursing and repainting of the entire building.
A private residence was added in 1861, a Sunday School Hall in 1876 and multipurpose centre in 1996 that joined the church to the Sunday School. These buildings also endeavoured to keep their original foundations, with the private residence becoming a nursing home and offices before returning to a private residence once again and the Sunday School Hall becoming another multi-use facility.
The renting of rooms and extra space on the church grounds also helps towards the congregation’s goal of preserving the historic building.
St Andrews received the ‘Heritage Near Me’ grant from the NSW Government with approved funding of $100,000 which covered the cost of restoring 8 decorative and stainedglass windows, as close as possible, to original condition.
For more information St Andrews Church is located at 25 West Market Street in Richmond or their webpage is https://richmond.uca.org.au/. Historic information taken from Richmond Uniting Church’s page ‘St Andrew’s – a History’.
