The Church the Convicts Built

Imagine coming to worship each week in a building where you knew every brick had been made by slave labour. Picture being the preacher in a church where the men who made the bricks were marched in under armed guard each Sunday to hear you speak of God’s love and forgiveness. That’s the challenge that faced Port Macquarie’s first two pastors Thomas Hassall and John Cross. WATCH as Paul unlocks some of the original story of St Thomas’ Anglican Church, built when Port Macquarie was a convict settlement.