Cullenwood....the church...empty!!!!

Just out of St Marys on the main highway is this gorgeous stone church...i have passed it too many times to count on our way to the East Coast.... but on Friday i begged "Himself" to stop ...it was a soft drizzle of rain falling, the grass was not too long, there was no one much on the highway and best of all...the gate was not locked..... so in i went....not before reading that the church was built in memory of ...

Vernon and Edith Ransom and their son Arthur...

I was in luck that day i am sure...for like any curious person i tried the door and open it went ...inviting me in to a very dusty but totally beautiful interior....

the sandstone arches were magnificent and the arched doorways beckoned me in..

dusty pine and cedar pews....some repaired floorboards, but mostly old well worn ones and a woven, well worn, faded red carpet runner down the middle of the rows on either side of the vaulted timber ceilings and the stone wall interior.

but what really took my breath away was these totally vibrant stain glass windows....i wondered how much more vibrant the colours and the details would have been had they been clean and cared for....???

just look closely...

there were different scenes depicted in each window around the walls ( i noticed that electricity had been installed at some later stage by the pendant lights hanging from the ceiling)

and at the front of the church was this huge three arched led light window with a ruby glass edge

this arched sandstone and leadlight window was on its own near the front of the church

i felt sad for the neglect of such a beautiful church and even more sad when i read this marble memorial on the wall...such love for a child lost....i wondered how she died at such a young age...???

i also wondered if little Helen had been christened in this stone font??

the timber arched door leading into the church from the foyer and opposite that door... into the 

 vestry which was a storage area (a starling fledgling dropped down from the rafter and scared me so much with its flapping juvenile wings..it managed to fly up to its nest in the rafter above my head again)

i think this was the organ..it was covered by a huge piece of tapestry in that vestry so i didn't get a really good look...

and if you are good at Roman Numerals you will know what year the church was built...

but for me the headstones in the church told me it was a very much loved church in the 1800's and the parishioners worshipped here and wanted this to be their final resting place when they passed on to eternal life...whole families buried here in their beloved church yard... 

there must have been a good stonemason living in the district ...the detail on most of the headstones is so intricate...

i hope that this church might be loved and used again soon.....

such a beautiful place...so sad it is empty and unloved and uncared for...!!!!

I wonder just who will enter here again to worship, to be married, to bless a child....to be buried.....and When????