Revived church hits a century

CONSIDERING the grandness and intricacies involved in building a neo-gothic construction using the limited funds and technologies of the early 1900s, a turnaround of about 19 months from ashes to commanding structure must seem quite incredible to The Block-watching public of today.

The determination demonstrated by St Mary's Grafton Parish to get its "house" back up and running so soon after it was destroyed by fire on April 29, 1913, is testament to the importance the community placed on having a fitting venue to congregate and worship the Lord.

Opened by Bishop O'Connor, of Armidale on Sunday, November 29, 1914, in the presence of church hierarchy from as far afield as Melbourne, the "new" St Mary's Church will celebrate its 100th birthday this weekend with a special mass to be conducted by Bishop of Lismore Geoffrey Jarrett on Sunday at 9.30am.

And as the church continues to cut a towering figure over Victoria Street a century later, the state in which its 1867 predecessor was found back in 1913 on the same site seems foreign to those that pass by the St Mary's we know today.

As reported in the Examiner at the time, the blaze that destroyed the original church occurred in the early hours of the morning offering no opportunity for intervention between the first couple of witnesses sounding the alarm and its total destruction.

"The church bell was rung at once. A number of citizens were speedily on the scene, but their assistance was of no avail to save the edifice from destruction as the fire had complete mastery. A table and two chairs were all that could be got out, and the organ, vestments, altar appointments and pew were totally consumed," the report said.

After describing how the fire took hold, the article went on to say "The generally accepted theory as to the origin of the fire is that the altar lamp, which continually kept burning, must have fallen from its suspended position by the small chain becoming worn from long usage. The oil and wafers becoming scattered over the floor, would cause ignition, and account for what occurred."

Whatever its fate, this was a "serious loss to the Roman Catholic community" and apart from the destruction of the building there were also costly uninsured contents to replace.

Insurance would pay 500 pounds which only covered a small portion of the loss and in the meantime services were held in the school room while initial work began on planning a replacement. (All while Grafton was without a Catholic Church it still managed to conduct 41 baptisms, 21 weddings and some 12 burials).

Given the amount of correspondence that flowed between the clergy and the appeals that needed to be orchestrated in the Clarence and around the region to have the church resurrected, again the timeframe seems spectacularly short in these days of red tape and budget blowouts. But the people of the area were generous and felt the Grafton community's loss and within weeks the mighty cogs of the church community began to turn and turn.

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Revived church hits a century