The historic St Margaret’s Anglican Church in Woombye has celebrated its 120 year anniversary and held a special blessing of its stunning stained glass windows.

The double-pronged celebration, during a recent Sunday morning service, recognised both the long history of the church as well as the journey to the creation of the stained glass windows.

The service was conducted by Bishop Jeremy Greaves, who noted that the celebration was being held during Lent, a traditional period in the life of the church in which parishioners, in the lead-up to Easter, draw closer to God through prayer, fasting, repentance and self-denial.

Bishop Greaves told the congregation, which included those seated in a special marquee erected outside for the occasion, that Lent represented two ideas – that of humans being created from dust, and destined to return to dust, frail, mortal, and our capacity for sin, but also that God has wonderful plans for our lives.

“Remember you are dust and to dust you will return, and then the Priest will often say, ‘repent and believe the gospel’... it’s an invitation to us, out of our brokenness, into God’s dream for us and our world,” Bishop Greaves said.

“It’s a wonderful thing about Ash Wednesdays, because, in that moment our brokenness is held alongside all the possibilities that God has for us, and they frame our journey through Lent, and they become a sign post for us for another way of being: ‘remember that you are dust, but repent and believe the gospel’.”

Bishop Greaves noted the significance of the stained glass window in prayer.

“May this window illuminate our worship and our lives through your grace, for once we were in darkness, but now in you, we are in light,” he prayed.

“Bless all those whose skill and care have been part of this creation, and all those who look at and through it, seeking to glimpse your glory, and grant that we might be restored in your love and though we now see dimly, we may see you face to face through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

He also prayed blessing over the window.

“In the name of the father and of the son and the Holy Spirit, we do bless and dedicate and set apart this window to the glory of almighty God, to beautify and make glorious the habitation of the Lord’s house, and a place where his honour dwells.”

The window was installed around five years ago, but the idea started many years ago, after a frustrated comment from the mother of parishioner Mrs Robin Dunn.

Mrs Dunn’s mother had terrible eyesight problems all her life.

“It was glaring, she couldn’t see, so she said to me, ‘can’t we do something about putting some coloured glass in there’ and that’s how it started,” Mrs Dunn said.

The design was settled after Mrs Dunn made the trip to Britain and saw the stained glass windows in the St Margaret's Chapel, in Edinburgh Castle, Scotland.

“I wrote to St Margaret’s Chapel in Edinburgh and I asked their permission to use the St Margaret design in our little church and I received that permission,” Mrs Dunn said during the service.

“There wasn’t enough money, so it didn’t go ahead at that time, but my mother organised her church guild ladies to raise as much funds as they possibly could and I can remember many a day finding the tables set out under the pine trees below our house in Woombye, with all the lovely guild ladies around, knitting ad crocheting and working on things to raise funds.”

However, years later, frantic fundraising continued and the windows, created in Eumundi, were eventually installed in April 2013.

“And I’ve been sitting there this morning, watching the sun come down and light the face of St Margaret, and it’s just glorious,” Mrs Dunn said.

“And I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful window to honour my mother because she is the one that first wanted it.”

Bishop Jeremy Greaves after conducting the blessing of the windows at the 120th anniversary service at St Margaret’s Church Woombye. Photo: Richard Bruinsma

Bishop Jeremy Greaves conducts the 120th anniversary service at St Margaret’s Church Woombye. Photo: Richard Bruinsma

Bishop Jeremy Greaves and Rector of Nambour Fr James Hall.

A historic past photos of the St Margaret’s Church Woombye. Photo: Richard Bruinsma