A little bush church that showed the way

The Barkly Church, formerly known as the church of St Mary and St John, started life as a private chapel at McCulloch’s Woodlands Station, some 40 kilometres from Barkly, itself a small gold-ming town 180 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.

Realising the need for a church at Barkly, Judith Cheesman purchased this chapel. It was moved to its present site in 1935. Judith’s intention was to have a place of worship in the small community, where anyone from any faith tradition could feel comfortable to use, even if they had to share.

This little bush church, in a still mostly rural area, has hosted various services and ceremonies including baptisms, confirmations, marriages and funerals. Reverend Brian McDonald held the first service there on November 24, 1935. Ministers and priests from various faith traditions including Anglican, Catholic and Presbyterian have since conducted services there.

The little bush church at Barkly, used by multiple denominations.

There is peace now in this rural area, but war has touched here. So many bush boys went to wars. The Barkly hall has the Rolls of Honour, naming those who went. The women of the church knitted and sent socks, balaclavas and food parcels to their boys. Not all returned and there is an echo in the graveyards, where their left-behind bodies should be: in this life never to be reunited with family.

As I sit in this non-denominational, multifaith church, I reflect on how can we claim to have faith, when, over time, the three children of the covenant – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – and those of other world faiths, seem to have split so far apart, each group eyeing the others and becoming increasingly intolerant of whatever and whoever differs from them.

Judith Cheesman (seated right) founded the Barkly church.

I also reflect on the many who have tried to bring these faiths together, like my great, great-grandmother Judith Cheesman. I wonder if Barkly church’s walls could talk and reflect on the many words, whispers, congratulations, commiserations, cries of faith, pleas and prayers these walls have heard, of what beliefs, hopes and dreams would they tell?

My personal hope is that whoever visits this little bush church, can be touched by Judith’s vision of all faithful coming together to pray under one roof, irrespective of race, colour or religion, so a better world can emerge based on love, peace and understanding. As the sign on the church declares: where all creeds are welcome to worship.

Children of the South, arise, awake, choose true...keep faith...

Following Judith’s footsteps, Bernadette Cheesman has been part of a number of faith groups that bring people from all faith traditions together to work for the common good of the community.