Welcome after hibernating! My one was not a winter-induced one, but one caused by summer, family holidays in Tasmania and challenges at work. To paraphrase Bruce Springsteen, It’s sometimes hard to stay sane in the city;-)
Summer is gone, footy has started, and this morning I woke up to the sound of an autumn rain pouring down and drumming on the roof. Being in Melbourne, it just needed a breakfast to calm down and I could peddle down to St.Kilda.
The lanes of the suburb of the insaintly are always a pleasure. Today I went along the unfashionable part of Acland Street, passed the Parish Hall of the Christ Church, today the home of Theatreworks, and then the church itself.
Seeing an open door, I went in, driven by curiosity and greeted by donations for a foodbank. Every Wednesday the church hosts locals in need. Today’s plea asks for small cereal packs, long life milk, med sized shampoo and tinned food.
I remembered the projected ornaments in a winter night 2017 which celebrated 160 years of the church’s existence and raising awareness of its state and its need to renovate.
This needs money. A lot. The floors are creaking, the roof needs repairing and God knows what else in-between. Entering the hall is a pleasure but cannot hide this need.
I had the pleasure to meet Father Turi , the priest of the church. When the parish started to plan, they came up with 4.5 million dollars. Heritage Australia gave them a further headache. The Welsh tiles need to be replaced by Welsh tiles now, from Wales. It will be hard to get sandstone from the quarry the church’s stones are coming from today. The quarry is not operating anymore, it is a piece of land privately owned by Lindsay Fox these days. Still, the sandstone should be sourced as close to its origin as possible.
Today the projected bill stands by around 10 million. Whoever has seen an episode of “Grand Design” knows about the accuracy of the estimates..
So the church considers to repurpose the Community Hall as a childcare centre, to generate income while giving to the community. Which still needs childcare centres. I was happy to find a place for my daughter nearby at Eildon Road Childcare Centre after a long wait many years ago, and the situation has not changed.
Regulations again are not helping. The council surely would welcome a new childcare but it does not want one without a car park. The Eildon Road centre does not have one, as Father Turi points out. I myself never used the car to go there, peddling through the leafy streets to bring my daughter to the childcrare in the morning.
But that does not discourage the council to insist in the church’s case.
So there will be a car park, most likely. And that incites some locals. So they orchestrated a petition which is now signed by ca. 250 people. However, many of them are recruited friends of friends, the church suspects. Many of the signatures are not by neighbours.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, so the saying goes. We will see how it pans out. I wish good luck to the church!
Sometimes it’s hard to be a Saint in the city.
