St Mary’s Church

This plaque is located at 39 Curdie St.

“On Saturday evening last, a numerously attended meeting of those interested in the erection of an Episcopal Church in Cobden took place at this usually quiet locality. Plans were submitted by Mr Moreland of Cobden for a neat wooden building with Gothic windows, the price being £1-5-0 for timber and labour and the carting of material to be defrayed by the committee. The dimensions of the new church will be 26 ft by 15 ft and it is anticipated that, for some time to come, this will meet the requirements of the members of the Church of England.” Church meeting at Cobden (November 3rd 1866)

The first church in Cobden probably would have been the ‘Church of England in Australia’ which was open for worship in July 1867. And the first recorded baptism was in the same year! The church has certainly has been around for a long time.

Now, in the 21st century, there is still a very large area to care for pastorally with the Mission District encompassing not only Cobden but also Terang, Timboon, and Camperdown.

St Mary’s has a warden and guardian elected by the worshipping parishioners each year as well as an active guild of four dedicated parishioners. Our current worshipping membership is very small with attendance each Sunday being between six and eight although we have a pastoral roll of 60.

We meet at 11.30am on the first, third and fourth Sundays of the month.

We became a Mission District in 2003-2004 after being the Parish of Holy Apostles. At that time, both Camperdown and Cobden parishes were not able to afford a full-time priest so we came together to make better use of our resources. That is why you will see Mission District of St Francis of Assisi on all things we distribute.

The building, now used as the church hall, was the very first church with the beautiful brick building coming nearly 40 years later. We are blessed to be able to meet in a great building that has been standing in the same place for well over 100 years. We celebrated the Centenary of Consecration in February, 2011, with 150 people attending. This was a wonderful time of celebration of God’s presence for our small congregation.

As we are totally self-funded, one of our major fundraisers has been a fete which, up until 2018, was held every year on the last Saturday of November. Back in 1911, it went for three nights because it was necessary to continue the fete into Monday evening when the remaining goods were auctioned.

The result of the enterprise of the committee was highly satisfactory with about £140 being taken – when expenses were taken into consideration, it left about £100 for the building fund. Principle prize winners were Mrs W Cook who secured ten fat sheep, Mr E Stacey, a heifer and Mr Taylor, a cow. Perhaps our fruit, Christmas box and Christmas cake are more suited to today’s prizes?

We may be a small faith community and, while our doors may not be physically open all through the week, they are open to the people who attend services each week. All you need to do is speak to one of the members of the congregation and they will endeavour to help you.