October 14, 2015
A crowd of about 80 people packed into St Paul’s Anglican Church in Kumbia on Saturday afternoon to witness the final ceremony to be held in the building.
The modern brick church at the corner of Brook Road and Gordon Street was built in 1970 to replace the original wooden church erected in 1917.
The mood at the deconsecration ceremony was upbeat for such a solemn occasion.
The congregation, led by Bishop Cameron Venables from Toowoomba, sang hymns, said prayers, took communion and gave thanks for a building that had played a key role in Kumbia’s close-knit community for almost a century.
Bishop Venables reminded the parishioners that St Paul’s had witnessed countless baptisms, marriages and funerals in its 98-years, so it was not surprising many people held a strong emotional attachment to it.
“This is a place where this community has gathered to worship and celebrate significant occasions in many people’s lives,” he said.
“But life is a cycle, and there is a time to open a church and there is a time to close one.
“We have reached that point today.”
Bishop Venables said transport was difficult 100 years ago, so it was the custom to build churches close to where people lived.
But today, with modern transport and highways eliminating the tyranny of distance, it was now common to have fewer but larger churches servicing the spiritual needs of communities.
So no one should think the closure of St Paul’s was a sign of decline in their own community, he said. Instead, it was simply a sign of changing demographics.
After the service, guests gathered for afternoon tea and fellowship.
Bishop Venables told southburnett.com.au what he found most pleasing about the closure was that the petition to do it had come from locals themselves.
They felt it would be better to centralise all the church’s services at St Michael and All Angels Church in Kingaroy.
“Some members of the parish relocated to Kingaroy several years ago, and they’d been travelling back to services at St Paul’s for many years out of loyalty to Kumbia’s church,” Bishop Venables said.
“But they now think that it would be better to expand Kingaroy’s congregation, so that’s what will happen.”
Three central parts of St Paul’s will live on at St Michael and All Angels: the church’s processional cross, its dedication stone and a 1956 stained glass window will be transferred to Kingaroy.
The Kumbia building will now be put on the market for sale.
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