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The Church at Hall today.

MESSAGE FROM THE VICAR GENERAL OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN

In the early days of what is now an impressive National Capital City, small groups of pioneer settlers were making their homes in the countryside around the centre now called Canberra and, despite the relatively difficult problems of transport and communication, their religious needs were met by 'the bush parson' who rode out on horseback or by carriage on one or more Sundays each month.

As these small centres grew, even modestly, there came local pressure for the building of a Church as a centre of worship, rather than the local hall or the parlour of one of the more affluent settlers.

And so it was in the Village of Hall, just on the boundary of the Capital Territory, that people gathered together in the 1930s to worship in the local hall, known as Kinleyside's (late in 1938 Rochford's) Hall in the main street of the village.

In the recently located Register of Services, it is recorded that a service - Epiphany 1 - was held on the 12th January 1930 at 3.00 pm; regrettably the number of worshippers was not recorded but the collection amounted to one pound, ten shillings and threepence. It is not clear whether this was in fact the first Anglican service ever held in the village, but it is a starting point for the history of what is now the Church of St Michael and All Angels and by the end of that first year the records show that 76 worshippers had attended services and had contributed nineteen pounds, seven shillings and fourpence to the collection plate.

The small band of faithful continued to worship in the village hall but in 1941 laid the Foundation Stone at the site of the present Church in Victoria Street. This modest but important book records the struggle to build the Church and to maintain the Christian presence in this part of the District, along with the Catholic and Uniting Churches. It was our great pleasure in 1998 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Church of St Michael and All Angels for the holding of services, when the first draft of the History was presented.

This book is at once the celebration of the unquenchable spirit of the pioneer seeking to maintain his or her religious faith and of the place of this house of worship in the Village and District it serves.

We pray that this spirit will continue to burn in the hearts of the parishioners, of visitors to the Church and the residents of the Village of Hall and District.

The above message from The Vicar General forms the introduction to the book:

"St Michael and All Angels
Victoria Street, Hall ACT

The History of a Village Church
by Neil Manton"

Published 1999, ISBN 0 646 38764 2