Anglican Communion News Service

[Southern Cross] The Diocese of Sydney is running a Fresh Start initiative to spread the Good News. One city church operated a "drive through" church as part of its outreach in the week before Easter.

St Paul's Chatswood on Fullers road has hundreds of cars stopping outside its doors during peak time traffic queues in Sydney. During Holy Week, cassettes that had been produced as part of the Fresh Start programme were distributed free to motorists.

"Chatswood is a commercial area and most people are occupied with business," said the Revd Mark Rundle of St Paul's. "They are busy, so the only way to reach them is via the communications means they are using."

The idea of the drive through church was borrowed from Forestville Anglican church, which first began distributing cassettes in this way in 1997. It was the idea of Forestville's Rector, the Revd Richard James. The scheme made headlines around the world in both church and secular press. Since then he has run a drive through twice a year, and is developing a network for drive through churches.

Richard James' idea is to use the Internet to distribute audio material for cassette and CD. He has access to cassettes by leading Christian speakers in Sydney and the Bible Society in Australia is committed to making unlimited audio versions of the Good News Bible available.