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BANYO UNITING CHURCH

Nudgee Methodist Church was built in 1888 on Earnshaw Road land donated by Mr Charles Atthow.  Growth required both extensions to the original 25ft x20ft building  and more land in 1900 and 1920 respectively. 

A new Church was built for one thousand two hundred and ninety-two pounds and opened on August 27, 1927.  The old building continued serving as a church hall.

A raised dais, kitchenette and kindergarten equipment were added, but as growth continued, it was necessary to move the old building onto the back of the property.  In 1956 a new main hall was opened.

The old hall was not demolished until 27 August 1983, when the buildings from Banyo, where worship had been discontinued in 1980, were transported to Earnshaw Road and remain there as the current Nudgee Sunday School centre.

Nudgee Methodist Church became part of  the Valley Circuit which had been formed in 1867, then in 1894 the Nundah Circuit was formed and consisted of Nundah, Nudgee, Zillmere, Eagle Farm and Myrtletown.  In 1947 the Nundah circuit encompassed Nundah, Northgate, Nudgee, Cribb Island, Nudgee Beach, Wavell Heights, Banyo and Geebung.  Presently the Nundah Parish has three congregations, Nundah, Northgate and Nudgee.

June 1977 marked the formation of the Uniting Church and in September of the same year, the Cribb Island church building was closed to make way for the expansion of the international airport.  The whole community was obliterated in the name of progress.

Change is inherent in the lives of people, places and events.  In the early days of the sparsely settled struggling Christian community, fellowship, cooperation and alliance provided space for varied rites and approaches and shared responsibilities for the common good of all. 

The two world wars brought change.  Those soldiers who survived were changed by their experiences and returned to changed families, friends and circumstances to undertake the onerous task of readjustment.  Churches were as unprepared as their flocks for the swing of the pendulum of change.

After more than thirty years since the churches united, the Nundah Parish is working hard to maintain small Sunday Schools in the Nudgee, Northgate and Nundah churches. 

There are Womens' Fellowships in all three churches, Prayer Meetings held weekly and Bowls Groups on a regular basis. 

Thus the pendulum swings again reflecting inevitable change.  Perhaps with honesty, example, service and joy expressed in song as of yore and faith like William Moore, over 150 years ago, who, each time he rode out from his humble cottage, was not certain he would return home safely - "that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee".

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