Desecrated!

By Tania Martin
VANDALISM of Monbulk’s Open Door Community Church has been described by local police as a low act.
Sergeant Alan Fincher from Monbulk police said it was a disgrace that someone would vandalise property, let alone a church.
He said it was particularly disturbing considering the amount of good work the church does in the local community.
Sgt Fincher said this latest case of vandalism follows a number of break-ins, thefts from motor vehicles and cars stolen in recent weeks.
He has called on the local community to keep an eye-out on their neighbourhood and be as vigilant as possible in locking their homes and their cars, and to report any suspicious behaviour to police.
“We need your (the community’s) help to get to the bottom of all this,” he said.
The church’s minister the Reverend Valerie Baker said she opened the church on Thursday morning, 29 June, to find the floor and most of the rooms covered with foam from a fire extinguisher and paint across the walls.
Rev Baker said she was shocked to also find the destruction of the Sunday school room that had been set up for local children.
She said there was paint splashed across the walls of the children’s room, the kitchen, and on the floor of the meeting room, but that thankfully the chapel had not been touched.
Rev Baker said after spraying paint across the walls of the kitchen and opening all the cupboards, the offenders stopped to have a drink of Milo.
When she first stepped into the church last Thursday morning, Rev Baker said she felt very disappointed but that God had given her the strength to be able to do what needed to be done, and call the police. “God gave me the strength or the peace to cope with the situation,” she said.
Rev Baker said the church is there to help people and to look for the positive things in the local community and she said there are so many ways people can volunteer instead of being destructive.
The vandalism was the second time in a week that the church had been broken into.
Rev Baker said the church was broken into on Saturday night, 24 June but nothing was stolen.
“They just opened all the doors and made a bit of a mess but they took some keys that were sitting on a table. That’s how we think they got in this time,” she said.
Rev Baker said all the locks would now be changed.
She said it was disappointing for something like this to happen only months after the church had opened.
In April the church opened after Monbulk Uniting Church and The Patch Church of Christ amalgamated.
Anyone who may have seen or heard anything should contact the police on 9756 6266.