OUR CHURCH COMMUNITY

Who We Are

We're a vibrant and diverse community that shares in each other's lives. We're a community of faith, unified in the hope we have found in Jesus. We welcome anyone, regardless of whether they share our faith or not, into our community life.

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We believe that our greatest joys and our deepest hopes are realised through faith in one unique person - Jesus Christ. Many of us have found that, in coming to faith in him, our lives have been transformed. We have experienced a spiritual 'rags to riches' transformation.

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Nonetheless, the experience is not a one-off event, it is ongoing. Our life together is a commitment to the ongoing reality of our discipleship to Jesus. We recognise we have been united by our faith in Christ and need each other. Through every challenge we face in life we find that it is necessary to continue to deepen our faith in Jesus. In doing so we discover a hope that transcends what would have overcome us. It is this hope we delight to share.

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The story of St Thomas' is about the coming together of a number of communities. In a nutshell, our heritage goes back to two different churches: St Theodore's Wattle Park and St Michael's Bennettswood. St Theodore's was a growing community and needed more space in order to accommodate its growth and expand on its vision. St Michael's had two communities: an English speaking congregation, made up of long time residents of the area, and a Cantonese speaking congregation who had originally come from a church that gathered in Chinatown. 

In 2007, St Michael's and St Theodore's decided to merge and become one parish with a new name: St Thomas' Burwood. The name was chosen to reflect our heritage:

Thomas is made up of 'Tho' from Theodore and 'Mas' from Michael's

Thomas was also known as “The Twin”

Thomas is believed to have been the first missionary to Asia

Motto: "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 

(Jn 20:29b NIV)

Patron saint of builders, architects and the blind