For a fourth time, Kinglake's St Mary's rises from the ashes

WITH ''optimism and hope'', the Catholic parishioners of Kinglake celebrated the fourth incarnation of their church, St Mary's.

Three times destroyed by fire - due to bushfires in 1926 and 2009, and arson in 1995 - it has again risen from the ashes, and Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart celebrated Mass with parish priest Grant O'Neill at the inaugural service yesterday. 

The Kinglake congregation missed only one Sunday after the devastating fire of Black Saturday (February 9, 2009) - the next day, when access up the mountain was closed.

 

By the following Sunday Father O'Neill had arranged with the owner of the Kinglake bakery and cafe to hold services in an upstairs room.

Then a portable classroom was set up on the razed church's grounds.

Archbishop Hart said the congregation, part of the Diamond Creek parish, had shrunk as some parishioners moved away, but for those who remained the reopening brought ''a great sense of optimism and hope''.

The new church features a glass wall looking out over the valley, and crucifix-shaped stained glass window on the back wall.

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