The Melkite, Maronite and Orthodox Christian community paid their respects to a larger than life individual in 2008 when Mr. William Bowmore pasted away at the age of 98.
Mr. /Bowmore was an altar boy and lived at the presbytery which is now the house next to the church. The committee and church members used to worship at the presbytery before the church was constructed from 1929.
In his lifetime, Mr. Bowmore amazed a respectable wealth and was very passionate in collecting different genres of art.
Some say Mr. Bowmore donated over 50 million dollars worth of art and other valuable collections to various art galleries and institutions and millions more helping students with tuitions and donating to schools in his lifetime.
Before Mr. Bowmore passed away, he lived 300m from the church at South Bank and he visited the church on a regular basis. His wishes were to build additional car parks, a residence for the priest and a community centre. We hope in the near future that his wishes will come true as he believed the presbytery and the church represented our father’s endurance in building the first house of worship for the Middle Eastern Christian community.
God Rest His Soul
Links and info about William Bowmore Life:
The Australian
The Sydney Morning Herald
gokids.com.au
The University of Newcastle
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Newspapers clips:
The Australian
The sunday mail
The-weekend Australian