It’s known by some as the Disney church on Fitzgerald Street in Windsor as it looks a bit like the Disneyland castle.
It will celebrate its 140-year history next month with the Governor of NSW David Hurley in attendance, and the church wants your memorabilia to put on show for the day.
Secretary of the Church Council Reverend David Kidd said they were already getting people coming out of the woodwork with delightful items from the church’s past.
“One lady has brought in her wedding dress from her wedding here over 40 years ago, we’ve got photos, and a plaster plaque of the church brought in by Councillor Christine Paine,” he said. “One of her children was married here.”
While the current church has a long history with Windsor residents, it is in fact the third church on the site.
“The first Wesleyan prayer meetings were in 1812 in Windsor, and these developed into a congregation when the first Methodist chaplain Samuel Leigh came out to the colony from London in 1815,” Rev. Kidd said.
“He established congregations in Parramatta, Windsor and Castlereagh, visiting them all on horseback. He started the Windsor congregation in mid-1816, so it is in fact 200 years since our congregation started as well.”
The first church on the site, built 1820, became too small, the second, built in 1838, burnt down in the great Windsor fire of December 1874, and the current one was built in 1876.
The celebration will be on Sunday, August 28. A special service will be held at 9.30am with current minister Reverend Geoff Stevenson, followed by a big morning tea put on by the congregration.
If you have any memorabilia you would like to offer, call Rev. Stevenson on 4577 3147.
