IT RAINED the day the Rosewood Congregational parishioners celebrated the long awaited opening of their new church on Saturday, March 27, 1954.
The new, larger and well-appointed building could not accommodate the numbers of church members and residents from all the surrounding districts, who had gathered to first witness the dedication ceremony before the doors were opened to allow all to file in for the dedication service.
Reports from the day indicated that perhaps 100 or more were unable to be seated or find standing room in the new church, but sheltered from the light rain under trees, shop awnings and on the verandah of the nearby manse as the President of the Queensland Congregational Union, Rev B Parker, conducted the service.
The Rosewood Congregational Church Pastor, Rev Henry Taudevin, in welcoming everyone to the auspicious occasion spoke of what the new church meant to the congregation.
“Today is the occasion when a long-felt desire has been realised,” he said. “This is the fulfilment of a dream.”
It was a dream first dreamed in 1925 during a meeting in the church manse.
The building fund opened with £49 but it would be almost a decade before more was banked in 1932. The Depression years followed by the outbreak of World War II drew the focus of many away from fundraising for new buildings.
It would not be until the later years of the war that the balance in the building fund increased significantly. By the end of the war in 1945, the account was showing a balance of £571.
In 1948, plans to build a new church were revived and six years later on that rainy day in March, when the church doors were opened, there were many reasons to celebrate.
“The building was started in January of last year,” Rev Taudevin told those who had gathered for the official occasion.
“It had been held up for a period because of the wet season.
“[But even as] the members of the committee had been disappointed, they had stood loyally together and now they are about to reap the reward for their labours and faith.
“The response to the appeal for financial assistance has been amazing
“This has fired the imagination of our people, and there has been great enthusiasm.”
Rev Taudevin acknowledged that there had been many generous monetary gifts as well as furniture, which included the pulpit and stained glass windows.
“I am deeply touched and encouraged by the magnificent response,” he said
“I feel proud to be pastor of a church with such splendid workers. I thank all who crowded round and pulled their weight in this great venture of faith.”
The church which was opened with such joy and faith in the future, would undergo a name change in 1966, when the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian churches united to become the Uniting Church in Australia.
The church building that stands today, is the one which was built in 1954.
It represents a congregation that was established in 1875. Settlers had first gathered in Samuel Waight’s home on his farm on the north western corner of today’s junction between John Street and Lanefield Road.
By May 1975, the first church was built on an acre of land donated by another settler, John Matthews. It was later extended to accommodate an ever growing congregation.
When the move to replace the church with a larger and more commodious model gathered momentum not all were in favour of the upgrade.
Those concerns were addressed by the Treasurer of the Church Finance Committee, Charles Richardson, on the day the new building was dedicated.
Mr Richardson, who had come to town some years before to manage the Rosewood Colliery, stressed that the committee firmly believed a new church had been necessary, although opinion may have been divided.
“Forgetting the material side, such as the [former] church being an old building, let us dwell on the spiritual side.” he said.
“Most people attend church for some reason or other, and it is not for us to question those reasons.
“Each one knows his or her own reason, but they all have a common basis – a closer communion with God.
“And to establish this closer communion we believe that it can be more readily and easily accomplished by the atmosphere created within a church.
“This atmosphere also assists your minister in the exercise of his duties.
“We believe that atmosphere should be such that once a person has been within its walls, he will go away with a feeling of comfort that will be with him all his life.
“If only one person enters the doors of this church and takes away that feeling of comfort, then the building of the church has been justified.”
