{"id":99148,"date":"2015-03-12T02:06:17","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T16:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=99148"},"modified":"2020-11-20T12:13:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T02:13:14","slug":"facelift-for-historic-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/03\/12\/facelift-for-historic-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Facelift For Historic Church"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Phil Mackay, from Kingaroy-based Camel Jet High Pressure Cleaning, is helping the historic church scrub up for its centenary celebrations, cleaning the tiles and brickwork to remove 98 years of grime<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The exterior of the church has been prepared ahead of its new coat of paint<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

March 12, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

An important part of Nanango’s heritage is getting a makeover ahead of its centenary celebrations in 2017.<\/p>\n

The Our Lady Help Of Christians Catholic Church in Gipps Street is currently surrounded with scaffolding as a team of workers sands, washes downs and repaints the exterior.<\/p>\n

Kingaroy painter Heath Kassulke said 100 litres of brick sealer and about 160 litres of paint were being used on the job.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Parish Priest Fr Nigel Sequeira conducted a small ceremony with the tradesmen, blessing them and their equipment and praying for their safety during the project.<\/p>\n

Present were representatives from Heritage Nanango Community Funding, who provided $42,339 towards the project, as well as one of the parish’s oldest parishioners, Pearl Walters, whose husband’s grandfather, Benjamin Walters, is the first name recorded in the parish’s baptism register.<\/p>\n

Parishioners have been busy raising funds to put towards the project, with more than $24,300 collected so far.<\/p>\n

Fr Nigel said this fund-raising would be ongoing as the parish also hoped to raise enough – an estimated $150,000 – to paint and repair the interior of the building.<\/p>\n

One of the popular strategies has been parishioners selling low-cost fruit and veges from their gardens before Mass.<\/p>\n

“It is also helping battling families and well as putting profits into the restoration,” Fr Nigel said.<\/p>\n

Fr Nigel said there was a lot of history in the Our Lady Help Of Christians building.<\/p>\n

More than 3000 baptisms and 710 marriages had been performed in the church.<\/p>\n

“It is our goal to have celebrations in the lead-up to the centenary to invite back couples that were married in this church to come back and renew their vows – bringing back to Nanango many who have moved away,” he said.<\/p>\n

“A similar celebration will be planned for those baptised in the church.”<\/p>\n

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