St Barnabas Church Broadway builds for the future

The community of St Barnabas Church Broadway (Barneys) has reached an historic decision to re-build on the Mountain Street site that was destroyed by fire on 10 May earlier this year.

After months of work, the Parish Council met on 25 November 2006 and decided to develop plans for a new community facility on the site centred around a Church that will seat 5-600 people, with ancillary facilities and at least 2 levels of underground car parking.

"The old Church building was a wonderful servant of the St Barnabas community for 150 years, and its loss was, and continues to be, deeply mourned. Today however, we are very excited to be planning for the building of something that will serve the needs of St Barnabas and the broader community well into the future" said Ian Powell, the Senior Minister of St Barnabas Broadway.

The decision of the Parish Council was strongly informed by the results of its consultation process held in the form of a “Search Conference” which was attended by almost 200 members of its community on 19-20 August 2006. The views expressed at this forum will form a basis for the planning which will now commence.

Barneys is a church that seeks to be "gripped by the love of Christ" and wants to demonstrate this love not only to its members, but also to the wider community around it. Barneys hopes that through the new building that it may continue to serve the people who live, work and study around Broadway for the next 150 years, and for “Eternity”.

"We see this not as a private project, but as a project for the entire community. We are therefore committed to working alongside all stakeholders, including the City of Sydney Council, the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, and the Anglican Church Property Trust to develop plans for a wonderful new facility on the Broadway site" added Mr Powell.

While the church building was irreparably damaged, the church community has thrived. It continues to meet for worship and fellowship every Sunday at 9:45am, 5:00pm and 7:15pm at 15 King Street, Newtown. Even so, the people of St Barnabas have every intention of once again meeting at the Broadway site after this relatively brief exile.

St Barnabas Broadway - the story so far

On 10 May 2006, a fire destroyed the St Barnabas Church building and severely damaged the Church Hall and Vestry building.

The church building suffered significant structural damage and has subsequently been demolished to a height of 3.5m, in accordance with orders made by the City of Sydney Council. The Anglican Church Property Trust has received engineering advice that no part of the church can be built upon. The upper floors of the other buildings must also be demolished, again in accordance with the orders of Council, and this will take place soon.

In the meantime, the Parish Council of St Barnabas has conducted a six-month investigation and consultation process to decide how any new buildings at Broadway will best serve the St Barnabas community and the wider communities (local, regional and university) that St Barnabas serves.

The highlight of the consultation process was the “Search Conference” attended by almost 200 members of the community on 19-20 August 2006. The views expressed at this Conference were greatly appreciated and studied in detail by the Parish Council.

The Parish Council also commissioned a Site Committee that met fortnightly and prepared a number of reports in relation to a variety of issues, including the needs of the St Barnabas community, the demographic changes to the local area and the potential financial implications of any building plans. Parish Council thanks the members of the Site Committee for their
dedication to this important role. The Site Committee also obtained external reports from:

- Paul Davies, heritage architect, on the heritage value of the remnant fabric of the site and as a consequence, sections of the original building have been preserved for possible use in the new building, including the bellcote and stone pinnacles and some 5000 bricks; and

- DBL Property as to feasibility and compliance issues with any new building. The Rector of St Barnabas, Ian Powell, also presented the Parish Council with his vision for the ongoing work of St Barnabas, which included continuing to work with the three universities in the Parish (Sydney, UTS and, more recently, Notre Dame), which have grown significantly in recent years, and to serve the growing population in the City of Sydney, particularly in the areas of Broadway and Ultimo.

Comments from the Rev Ian Powell

We want to build a platform for serving the community into the decades to come. We know that we have wonderfully good news to share with our needy world and we are constantly working on better ways to share it.  Our community belongs to Jesus and we are seeking to build a base that will be a blessing for the immediate nad long term future.

The Parish Council has made a brave decision but one that was almost obvious in terms of building for the future. We expect that the building will be excellent for our University ministries, congregations and for the community to use for other events.

Regarding the long term, we need to bequeath to our descendents a building with as much space as possible and with maximum flexibility. It must be well built so as to last. Better to build too big, if that were possible than too small.

For further Information please contact Mario Falchoni " 0418 401 415