When driving in country NSW I noticed an old building. Fenced off on a hillside in a paddock, this lonely, discarded little church of local granite stone appeared to have lost its identity and use. Whether harvest or drought, birth or death, gain or loss, war or peace, the church was expected to always be there and find some meaning in it all. And now churches are quietly vanishing from the landscape, ‘their future … denied’.
The song is available on Jim’s CD, Journey’s End
Lyrics:
There is a green hill in a town
Where once a church stood proud
Its bell would ring
And all would sing
The hymns of praise aloud.
A place of worship where some found
A refuge from life’s storm
Renewed their faith
Through fellowship
And left with hope reborn.
But now this church is falling down
The grass around is high
Its roof half gone
The only song
The wind, a mournful cry.
And many buildings like this one
Their future now denied
Deserted, broken,
Close to ruin
They dot the countryside.
Where are they now, who perched the pews
Baptised and married there?
Did they fulfil their hopes and dreams
And claim eternal fare?
Repeat verse 1
© Jim Low Briar Hill 30 March 2009