Reverends Graeme and Leigh Gardiner will bid farewell to the region with a shared Closure of Ministry service on Sunday, February 14, at St James Anglican Church in Rylstone, before taking up a shared position at the Uniting Church in Springwood.

Graeme took up his position at Mudgee Uniting Church in 2009, moving with his late wife Jenny to a Lue property they had owned since the early 1990s. 

When his wife died in 2010, Graeme remained in their mud brick house and continued his work at the Mudgee church and the surrounding Cudgegong Cluster.

Leigh, meanwhile, was working towards her ordination in Canberra, studying a Bachelor of Theology at the Anglican St Mark’s College, where she joked that the biggest surprise would be if she ended up converting to Anglicanism.

Raised in the Uniting Church and raised in Sydney, Leigh graduated as an Anglican priest on her way to the rural parish of Rylstone.

“It was definitely a culture shock living in the country,” she said.

She discovered the small differences between city and country life; for example, if she ran out of milk after 6pm, there was nowhere to buy another carton.

“But I’ve always loved the country and was very attracted to the idea of it,” she said.

The pair met during Leigh’s first week in Rylstone, when Graeme heard that she had a musical background and asked if she would lead the singing at the Easter school service while he played keyboard.

Leigh woke up without a voice on the day of the service and the two quickly swapped roles, but it was the beginning of a productive collaboration.

Graeme and Leigh started a community choir known as Wollemi Voices, and initiated a number of shared ecumenical projects.

The friendship blossomed into something more, and in 2013 they were married.

If the couple could expect to leave a legacy, Graeme said he thought it would be one of greater partnerships between denominations and within the community.

“We kind of became this ultimate reflection of collaboration in getting married,” Graeme said.

The Uniting Church and Anglican congregations are both keen to continue the partnership that has allowed them to initiate program such as Messy Church and, working with Rotary, the Kandos carols night.

Leigh said funerals had been some of her most challenging and most rewarding duties, demonstrating to her how a single death could sometimes affect a whole community, and giving her the privilege of working with families at a vulnerable time.

She said she had also observed the famous strength and resilience of country people, through severe drought and community hardship.

Leigh recalled a forum where locals were asked when they had seen their community at its best. Many agreed that it was when people had banded together to support those in trouble or to achieve something for the town.

“Having come from largely the grey blur of Sydney, I know that I’ve certainly developed my capacity to be involved at a grass roots community level,” Graeme said.

He said people had described the upcoming move as a shift “to better and brighter things”, but that wasn’t the way he saw it.

In fact, he said there was no way in which his time locally had not been the best and the brightest, and if he could stay and commute to Springwood he would.

“It’s sad but it’s a season that has drawn to a close,” he said.

Graeme and Leigh are ready for a new challenge in a new setting, where they can work together in a single church and start a home together.

The local congregations will miss their leaders, but both Leigh and Graeme are confident the lay people are ready for the challenge of managing the churches themselves.

“Our leaders are stepping up to the mark and there’s a sense of excitement,” Graeme said.