A place of peace and welcome
About The Abbey Church
A Christian community in Caboolture with a church that its members built by hand, consecrated in 1967 and open to everyone.
An Independent Christian Denomination in Caboolture
The Abbey Church, Caboolture (Orthodox Catholic Church of Christ the King) is a place where visitors can experience a sense of peace, tranquillity and welcome and we offer the opportunity to know more about us.
We are a Christian community dedicated to supporting seekers on their spiritual journey and doing good works for the betterment of the wider community. We welcome all people to worship at our weekly Sunday Services and also participate in the program of activities our Church offers. We believe and acknowledge that all people are children of God, equally loved and valued by our Divine Creator.
Our heritage incorporates both eastern Orthodox and western Catholic traditions and is steeped in the core teachings of Jesus as found in the New Testament. We acknowledge the feminine aspect of God as Divine Mother and Holy Wisdom. We acknowledge the feminine aspect of God as Divine Mother and the Holy Wisdom. (Genesis 1 v 27; Isaiah 66 v 13)
Our goal is to help people know and grow in their personal relationship with God, and to live good lives, serving and helping others with compassion and understanding. We believe that life is like a school offering opportunities to learn lessons and grow as our Soul journeys back to God over subsequent lives. (St Matthew 11 v 11-15; St Matthew 17 v 10-13)
The Abbey Church looks to the coming to earth again of Christ and works to raise the Christ Consciousness in the world.
We acknowledge all other World Faith traditions, believing that each has a role to play in leading people to the Divine.
We seek to respond to the needs of God’s people in the local and wider community, families and individuals, both lifelong seekers of truth and those beginning their spiritual exploration.
The Abbey Church in Caboolture offers a sacred space of deep peace that can nurture the soul and uplift the spirit.
History of the Abbey Church
The Orthodox Catholic Church of Christ the King (the Abbey Church) brings together the traditions of the Eastern and Western Churches, which mutually excommunicated each other at the time of the Great Schism in 1054AD. After the infallibility of the Pope was decreed following the Vatican Council of 1870, a considerable number of Roman Catholics renounced their allegiance to the Pope and sought to form a separate valid Church. However, as they had no Bishops, no one could be confirmed or ordained.
unifying, once more, the eastern and western lines of the Christian Church after 1000 years of separation.
Contact was established with the Old Catholic Church of Holland, which through a curious series of political events had become disassociated from the Roman Catholic Church, and yet had retained valid Orders. Meanwhile, in Goa and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), another large group of Roman Catholics broke away from the Papacy, under the leadership of a Priest named Francis Xavier Alvarez. To obtain consecration, he turned to the Syrian Christians, whose Bishops on the Malabar Coast were under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Antioch.
Our church received these two lines of succession through the consecration of Rev J.S.M. Ward our founder, unifying, once more, the eastern and western lines of the Christian Church after 1000 years of separation.
Building the Abbey Church
One of the early priorities for the Abbey Community, arriving in Queensland in 1965, was to build a church. The following year, in 1966, an area of bushland was cleared and preparations for building the church began. As the Community at that time had very few financial resources Fr Francis negotiated and bartered to source timber and all other resources needed. This included recycled timbers from a fish and chip shop and a disused house which the owners wanted demolished.
Fr Francis took the lead in the building of the church as he had previous carpentry experience. However, many of the Abbey Community members assisted with numerous laborious hours being spent removing nails from recycled timbers which became the framework of the new Abbey Church. At that stage it was just a single chapel that seated around 40 people. The Abbey Church was consecrated on 9th of September 1967 and has been the centre of the Abbey Community’s spiritual worship ever since.
However, with a growing congregation and the popularity of the new Abbey Church for weddings, baptisms and funerals, the church was extended eleven years later to include two side chapels dedicated to Christ the King and the Divine Mother, the Holy Spirit. The extended church was completed in 1978.
Further changes to the church occurred in the early 90’s when the outside of the building was bricked in to look as it does today. Gardens were established around the church, bedding the building into the beauty of God’s creation and creating a place of peace and tranquillity.
Here, those who attend the Abbey Church services or come to see the remarkable collection of medieval and Victorian stained glass windows, can enter a space of divine blessing and take solace or inspiration into their daily lives.
From the archive
The fish and chip shop that supplied recycled timber
The frame and roof take shape
The community at the completed timber church
The 1978 extension under construction
Visit the Abbey Church
The best way to know the Abbey Church is to visit. Join us this Sunday, or get in touch if you have any questions.
Phone the Abbey Church on 1300 172 333 or send an email to