Ebenezer-Pitt Town Uniting Church

Ebenezer Church overlooks the Hawkesbury River in a rural/bushland area that is 12km from the township of Windsor.

Built in 1809, Ebenezer Church is the oldest existing church in Australia. It became the first Presbyterian Church in Australia in 1824 and is now a member of the Uniting Church in Australia.

Our Mission Statement:

By faithfully using the resources that God has given us, to relate with the community in which we live, bringing peace and wholeness for individuals and groups that comes through a relationship with God.

Through:

• Encouraging relationships with God through Christ
• Demonstrating our care and concern for others, and so building up their self-esteem and promoting the beliefs that all people are important to God and that the whole person is loved by God
• Our actions and words, bringing people a positive experience of God that mirrors the love and grace God has given to us and to all people through Jesus.

Facts about Ebenezer Uniting Church:

• Is Australia’s oldest church, est. 1809 at Ebenezer, NSW
• Was the first non-conformist then Presbyterian Church in Australia
• Was a pioneer in education in the colony, beginning a school in 1810. The church is the oldest extant school building in Australia.
• The Coromandel covenantors arrived in Sydney in 1802 and began as pioneer farmers on the Hawkesbury at Portland Head in 1803.
• After five years of worship in the open air and in the homes of Dr Arndell and Owen Cavanough they, with seven other families, covenanted on the 22nd September 1808. They formed the ‘Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge and the Instruction of Youth’ and agreed to build a church and school and to call a minister to facilitate their faith.
• Ebenezer means ‘The Lord has helped us all the way’ or ‘Stone of Help’. 1 Samuel: Chapter 7 Verse 12.
• In 1809 and 1817 they sent to the London Missionary Society for supply of a minister.
• The first communion service according to the Church of Scotland was conducted in 1824 by the Rev. Dr. John Dunmore Lang. Andrew Johnston was ordained as an elder.
• The schoolmaster’s residence appears to have been built in 1817 and is an excellent example along with the church of early colonial architecture designed by Andrew Johnston.
• David Dunstan and later Charles Smith, carpenter for Governor Macquarie and architect Greenway, did the carpentry at Ebenezer Church.
• The first ordained Minister to serve at Ebenezer was the Rev. Dr John McGarvie, taking over pastoral duties from layman Catechist ‘Pastor’ James Mein.
• The fifteen pioneer families made major contribution not only to church life but also to the whole development of the colony in its infancy.