New vicar aims for growth

By Bridget Brady
BUILDING a new church and increasing congregation numbers are among the goals of the new vicar at St John’s Anglican Church in Cranbourne.
Reverend David Powys took up his post late last month, having been vicar for 17 years at the Anglican Church in Mount Eliza. He was also archdeacon of that area.
“It was time to move. It’s good to get a new challenge,” he said of his move to Cranbourne with wife Penny.
Rev Powys, 54, said he was excited about his work at Cranbourne and was keen to see the number of people who attended services increase. The number attending services at Mount Eliza was about three times as many as at Cranbourne, he said.
“The numbers attending are quite small, given the population of Cranbourne is quite large and the growth that is expected here,” he said.
But he said the representation of ages within the congregation was healthy. “I encourage Christian people to be part of the Anglican Church and for non-Christian people to think about the Christian gospel,” he said.
Rev Powys said he would establish a fund to build a new church building. “The building is very inadequate. It seats about 75 people at the moment and that’s far too small. I’m hoping that in two years’ time we will be well on the way to a new building,” he said.
Rev Powys, who was ordained in 1980, said the Anglican Church focused too many of its resources on churches within a 15-kilometre radius of Melbourne’s CBD. “More than 60 per cent of Melbourne’s population lives outside the CBD so we’ve got it back to front. That’s part of the reason I was willing to come here,” he said.
Rev Powys said the people in Cranbourne were very welcoming. “The atmosphere within the church and the wider community has been fantastic. We’ve found the people to be friendly and accepting,” he said. Rev Powys replaces Rev Edwin Lang, who is now general manager corporate services with Relationships Australia (Victoria).