By Emily Chapman Laing
Forty years to the day since the Ash Wednesday bushfires destroyed his church and took the lives of some of his parishioners, Reverend Roger Rich recalled his experiences in the fire’s aftermath.
As he moved around the Upper Beaconsfield CFA Ash Wednesday FIRESTORM exhibition on Thursday 16 February, Rev Rich was confronted by images of himself and his church, as well as those of other community members.
Looking at an image of himself standing in the ruins of St John’s church at the time, Rev Rich was reminded of how peculiar the emotional reactions felt at the time.
“I’m not sure if it had an emotional impact at that time,” Rev Rich said.
“Because our emotions were blunted, just from everything taking place.
“It wasn’t so much what you felt, it was more surveying the wreckage and destruction, because so much had been destroyed.”
One iconic image from the exhibition shows a large crowd of hundreds of locals, gathered together in the days following Ash Wednesday.
Rev Rich unwittingly facilitated this coming together, which came to be a most memorable experience for everyone involved.
“Here in the hall [a church service was held], then we transferred down to the tennis courts afterwards,” Rev Rich said.
“That tennis court was a very memorable occasion – there were about 1000 people there.
“[It] was a completely spontaneous event, I had no expectation of anybody turning up on the day.
“It was really the community come together with the church mixed up in it, it wasn’t a planned church service.”
Among those gathered were members of the community who were grieving for more than their lost homes and land.
“The most significant sort of event in one’s life, when something unexpected happens and you have no comprehension an hour beforehand that anything like this was going to emerge.”
“[There were] people there who lost family members,” Rev Rich said.
While incredibly intense and tinged with sorrow, Rev Rich said the service was undoubtedly the most memorable he had ever conducted.
“We got everyone to join hands, and we sang what we could,” Rev Rich recalled.
“I had enough 30 or 40 people there at least from the congregation who were able to give rise to it.
“We sang ‘lord bind us together, lord bind us together’ which was entirely appropriate.
“We did that on Sunday at St Johns when we had a service there.
“Just this one beautiful thing to bind us together again.”
