For just over a century St John the Evangelist Church has been situated on the corner of High and Milton Streets, Bannockburn. (If only the walls could talk?)
Originally part of St Mary's parish Geelong for five years, then the Winchelsea parish was formed and Bannockburn along with Mt Moriac, Inverleigh, Teesdale and Anglesea made up the new parish in 1905.
In the 40 plus years that I have been in Bannockburn, I have seen many changes. When our children were small, we had Mass each Sunday morning and many times the children were still in their dressing gowns at Mass. The Priest would come from Ballarat each Saturday night, stay at one of our homes, then after Sunday Mass, we would take it in turns to take him back to Ballarat each week.
Later on when we could no longer get the Priest to come from Ballarat we started having 7.30 Mass on a Saturday night each fortnight, on the other week we would go to Inverleigh or to Geelong on a Sunday.
When we were adopted by Meredith Parish in 1997, we were very fortunate to be given a 9.30am Mass every Sunday; I know that many of the congregation appreciate this.
In 1998/99 the narthex was built on to the Church and is used for a "cuppa and chat" after Mass on the first Sunday of the month, so please stay when you come to Mass on that day.
Also it's great to have this room for meetings and celebrations after First Communions and Confirmations held here.
Mass each Sunday usually sees the Church pretty well filled and on Easter Sunday the nearly 200 members of the congregation overflowed into the Narthex.
Mass is on each Sunday at 9.00am.