Crosslight - Edition April 2020

“
They wake to a dawn that doesn’t happen,
continued blackness instead of
creeping, seeping light.
”
She’s the only priest in placement in
town, in the only church in the region.
She wishes it need not have happened in
her time, but it did.
Rev Jude Benton is the Anglican
Priest-in-Charge in our cooperating
Anglican-Uniting Parish of Croajingolong.
She’s another of our excellent imports
from New Zealand and has been in this
placement for 18 months.
The manse is in Mallacoota and
she shares it with her husband, Andy,
who works for the Victorian Fisheries
Association, and their cat, Nelson, who
works for no one. On the Sunday after
Christmas, Jude stands up in church and
tells them all the exciting things that are
ahead in the coming week with Scripture
Union’s THEOS and Family Mission
teams.
The first “bing” of the Vic Emergency
App goes off on Sunday afternoon,
notifying them of a fire at Wingan Inlet in
the Croajingolong National Park. It’s only
a matter of time before it impacts their
town.
Jude comes up with a new plan for
Monday; gather to pray at 10am, people
can go to the meeting at 11am, while she
prepares the church as an evacuation
centre and they’ll take it from there.
At the meeting they’re confronted
with the horrifying reality; this is likely
to be like 2009’s Black Saturday. It will
be raining embers and they are urged to
leave town and go north.
Jude’s parents, holidaying with them
from New Zealand, make it out towards
Melbourne before the road closes. As
they leave the manse, Jude can’t think
what else to pack in the car. What’s
valuable? What would I miss? She sends
them off with love and prayers.
They drive her car to Cann River,
unaware they are so close to where the
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