St Stephen's Anglican Church Kurrajong celebrates 150 years

She recalls eight ministers during her lifetime, including one who had a knack for surprising her into action as a child: "He would be up in the pupil preaching, and then suddenly he'd bang his hand down. You'd almost jump out of your skin!" she laughed. "If you weren't listening, you started listening!"

Mrs Caughey (maiden name Dunston) was born in 1928 and grew up on orchard country at Kurrajong, in a house with two big Norfolk Island pines out the front that still stands opposite the present day Kurrajong North Public School. She used to walk up the hill - which she called "The Old Road" - to attend Sunday School at St James at Kurrajong Heights, which was part of Kurrajong Anglican at the time.

She was 13 when she began attending Youth Group at St Stephen's at Kurrajong: "It was an old wooden hall at the time - I don't know how it stood up to the noise and commotion!" she laughed.

She married her husband David Caughey, an orchardist, at St Stephen's in 1949. The Pansy railway operated at the time, and the wedding guests took the train to Kurrajong where a fleet of taxis waited to take them up the hill to the church.

"That's when our main connection began with St Stephen's," she said. "We were going there for many years."

The couple's daughter Julie Wilson (60) said her earliest memory was attending Sunday School at St James - just like her mum did - when she was four.

"Reverend Daniels pointed at me and asked me the answer to a question, and I just froze and refused to go back!" Mrs Wilson laughed.

"I finally gave in when I was about six and went back to Sunday School because Tim [her brother] was old enough to come with me."

The children attended Sunday School at the old North Richmond Anglican church, where their mother taught and also played organ. Both Mrs Caughey and Mrs Wilson remember a mouse running over Mrs Caughey's foot once when she was playing the organ in the old building.

Mother and daughter remember fondly the arrival at St Stephen's of a minister, Neil Prott, and his young family in 1972.

"It was the first time we were actually allowed in the rectory, which had always been taboo!" laughed Mrs Wilson.

She began attending Youth Group there when she was 14, in 1973: "There were six kids meeting up in the rectory in its first year, then all of a sudden it burst after we all invited our friends."

Her mum, Mrs Caughey, said it was Mr Prott who got behind the building of the new brick facility that stands at Kurrajong along with St Stephen's today.

Mrs Wilson - like her mum - married at Stephen's, to husband Graeme Wilson in 1978. Two of their children have since been married there, and have gone on to attend church at Kurrajong Anglican with their own children, tallying four generations of the family's involvement with St Stephen's.

Mrs Caughey - who now lives in Richmond - said: "The church has been part of our entire lives, and the friends you make there."

St Stephen's celebrates 150 years this Sunday, April 7, and the community is invited to join the celebrations, starting at the 10am service at Grose Vale Road, Kurrajong. For more details visit www.knac.org.au or contact 4573 2183.