Belair Uniting Church

Around 1862 or 1863 worship services at Belair were held in the residence of a Mrs Breaker. Mr. & Mrs. Breaker occupied the land at Kalyra in the late 1850’s/60’s, some thirty years before the sanitorium was built with Dr. A.H. Gault as its first director and Chief Medical Officer.In 1881 a Wesleyan church was opened in Blackwood and it and the new Blackwood Methodist Church, erected in 1921/1922, served the Belair district until August the twelfth, 1923 when the Belair Methodists held a service of worship in the one room Belair school that had been constructed in 1912. The people who attended sat in the school desks.A church trust was formed and allotment 1, on the corner of Florence Terrace (now Sheoak Road) and Alta Mira Crescent, was purchased from Mr. H. O. Hannaford on February second, 1924.The trustees, Messrs. Petherick, Uren, Jeffries, Hannaford, Fielding, Price, Martin and Mackereth, decided in 1925 to erect a church on the land and building was commened in December 1927.The foundation stone was laid of the fourth of February 1928 by Mrs. A H.Gault and the opening service was held April twenty-second, 1928. Soon after the opening service the walls of the church began to crack and had to be underpinned and tiebars were installed to hold them together.

An increase in the Belair population after World War II required additons be made to the church. In 1946 a timber-framed kindergarten hall was erected by voluntary labour at the rear of the church and a kitchen and sun room were added in 1953.

To meet the further needs of an enlarged Sunday school the house and land at the rear of the property with frontage to Alta Mira Crescent was purchased in 1957 to provide additional classrooms. More added space was required in the church by 1958 so the southern wall dividing the nave from the vestries was removed and thevestries space added to the nave which now included the whole of the original 1928 building.

In 1977, when on a national level the Methodist church joined with the Congregational and Presbyterian churches to form the Uniting Church in Australia, there was a further need for new and increased accomodation and a proposal was put to the congregation that it unite with nunyara and build a new hall there. This was rejected in 1981 in favour of demolishing the outdated hall at the rear and erecting in its place an enlarged masonary  building that would comprise a hall fully equipped with all the modern facilities. This was completed in 1982.

The house and portion of the land at the rear of the church was sold in 1982 to help finznce the building project. Additional money was raised by a successful lamington drive and proceeds from the church catering service which was in demand over many years for weddings and birthdays. The new hall was officially opened on February 20, 1983 and it enabled the church to undertake additional activities.

In 1987 a Kids Club began on Thursday evenings after day school hours and continued into 1990 when it closed as the children becam older and several of the leaders and helpers were no longer available  and the weekly Friendship Centre was commenced.

In 1993 the church made a commitment to help support the Sunrise Orphanage in Cambodia. The orphanage is run by Geraldine Cox. Belair Uniting church was the first church to provide the Sunrise Orphanage with this type of support.

to create more vacant floor space in the nave for congregational participation programmes the harmonium and the pulpit at the front of the church were removed in 1995 in favour of music being prvided by piano and use of the lecturn for worship leading.

In 2008 the congregation celebrated the 80th Anniversary of the current church building.