World Cup Churches: 14. Australia

Continuing a series of blogs heading round the 32 qualifying countries in the 2022 World Cup - I will pick out one church in each one.  I am not going to choose only churches that are to my liking.  This is an exploration not a recommendation! To see all in the series select the label 'World Cup Churches' below.

To many of us Australia is - in churchspeak terms - synonymous with Hillsongs, the megachurch operation who we all support by singing their copyrighted songs.  My choice is, however, a much older church from Melbourne.

Australia regularly qualifies for the World Cup and four years ago in writing about Australia in this context I drew attention to my interest in Frank Boreham (click here).  Had I ever visited Australia I would certainly have sought out his old church in Armadale, Melbourne.

Researching Armadale Baptist Church for this blog has been a little frustrating (but travelling to Australia to research it is a little expensive and time consuming . . .)  

One google reviewer - 'Just beautiful - the stain glass and the pipe organ' - sounded alarmingly like visitors to our own edifice here in London. Like many other churches in the 'Western World', Armadale Baptist  has seen better days.  Intentionally or not it gives an impression of being a Community Centre first and foremost, which would be an awkward way to live out Frank Boreham's legacy.

Outside our church here in London we have a Weapons Bin to encourage the safe removal of knives and other weaponry from the community.

Armadale Baptist has 

. . . a series of compost bins.

A quick glance around the leafy area begs the question why people cannot have their own compost bin - but this remains a mystery. As does how to open it  . . .