History

This brochure provides some details of the history of the St Mary the Virgin Anglican Chapel at the Denham Court Anglican Church

This brochure provides some details of the history of the Denham Court Anglican Church Graveyard.

Full Parish Status Speech 21st September 2026

(Rev. Richard Mills to Synod 2026)

This is my 29th year on Synod and I have only spoken occasionally. I spoke in 2003 when West Ryde became a full Parish, which is the only other time I wore a suit and tie to Synod.

When I commenced at both West Ryde and Denham Court the churches had each declined significantly, and church growth experts say such a church is difficult to revitalise. But let me say it is not impossible. However, it is challenging and exciting although also a bit frustrating at times.

I will reach the retirement age for Senior Ministers in October 2027 so please pray for the person who follows me to take Denham Court to the next stage of its ministry life.

Denham Court Anglican church commenced in 1838, so it is 188 years old.

But it has not been a Parish for over 100 years, since the 1920s. we believe this is a record! It was attached to another Parish and then became a Provisional Parish in 2000. It did well for a time but then there was a decline. In 2019 there were serious discussions about possible closure or amalgamation.

When I commenced in late January 2020 there was an average of just 30 people attending, 15 at each of the two morning services and no children. And I was aged 59 so I was one of the younger members of the congregation.

At my commencement of Ministry service, I asked people to pray that the church would become viable and this prayer has thankfully been answered. In just over six years we have grown from 30 people to now being 4 times the original size of when we commenced.

The most important thing we did was to establish a weekly prayer meeting on Friday mornings with people such as Jan who you saw in the video. The prayer meeting is still going strong. We initially prayed for five young families, and God has more than answered this prayer. Then we prayed for teenagers and people in their 20s and this prayer is slowly being answered. We also prayed about the obstacles that have arisen along the way and God has answered our prayers each time.

These obstacles included:

Just seven weeks after commencing at the church Covid hit. This was a challenge without much technical expertise and equipment in the church. So we prayed. We could not do video broadcasting of our services, but we recorded audio discussions like a radio show and distributed them by email.

The church was left a couple of bequests, and we used them to refurnish the chapel with a new roof and painting inside and out and reverse cycle air conditioners. But the costs blew out due to unforeseen problems such as massive termite damage in wooden beams in the roof and so we had to raise the rest of the money. So we prayed and God answered our prayers in enabling us to raise the money.

There was a property development in 2009. In the 2020s we were still paying off a loan to the Diocese. Also, as we started to grow in numbers and income, the Wollongong region asked for the return of money they had given for the property development in 2009. We negotiated this down from over $300,000 to a compromise figure of $180,000. So, we prayed. Again, God enabled us to raise this money. In the last few years, we have raised considerable sums of money just to pay off all the debts of the church. We also did much delayed property maintenance and improvements.

This has meant we could not put on extra paid ministry staff even though our income was growing steadily. But God in his goodness has provided two retired ordained Anglican ministers to help mightily with the ministry. My wife Marge, who is also an ordained Anglican minister has been a marvellous support and actively involved in many aspects of the growth of our church. Also, thanks to my adult daughter Lucy who has been wonderful in supporting the ministry at our church and also put together the video presentation.

We give praise to God that people from a range of religious and ethnic backgrounds are coming to Christ through the ongoing ministries of the church. God has enabled people in the church to move from a position of pessimism and concern about survival to having a great excitement about seeing the growth of the church.

We give thanks to God who has answered our prayers many times. We are thrilled to see people come to faith and all of us are growing together in our relationship with Jesus.