The church upon the hill

This is the church where P’s funeral service will be held tomorrow. It’s a country church, established in 1904, quite large but by no means rich. Pat and a number of her siblings were baptised and received their first communion here. Her parents were married here and are buried in the cemetery.
 
P’s grandfather, who died in 1969, wrote a long ballad about the building of the church and the development of a Catholic community around it. People came to Mass on Sunday mornings in buggies and sulkies and tied their horses to the church railings. The area was still quite rural, with market gardens and mushroom farms.
 
Judging from the names on grave stones and commemorative signs the growing population came from many cultures and creeds. P would have liked this passage, which seems to reflect a simpler world:
 
And the new Australian people
That have come from o’er the foam
We hope they will be happy
In their new Australian home.
 
We love to see them coming
And I trust we always will,
And extend to them a welcome
To the church upon the hill.