Our Story

SWEC was born out of a partnership between Chinese Christian Church (CCC) Milson’s Point and St Bede’s Anglican Church (Beverly Hills). It was planted in order that a vacant Anglican church building in Kingsgrove can be used once again for worship and mission. The then Senior Minister of St Bede’s (now Bishop of Wollongong), Peter Hayward, wanted to enlist CCC to plant congregations in Kingsgrove that could more effectively reach the increasingly migrant population in Sydney’s south and south-west.

  1. Birth

    In 2008 a core group of about 20 began meeting monthly at St Thomas' Kingsgrove to pray and gather interested parties. The first service in its current building was conducted on Christmas Day 2008. It was a bilingual service in English and Mandarin.

  2. Official Launch of (then) SWCCC

    In January 2009 a Mandarin service began meeting in the main church and an English service in the hall. The official launch of SWEC (then called 'South-West Chinese Christian Church' or SWCCC) was on Sunday, April 26 2009. Since then, both Mandarin and English congregations of SWEC have been meeting in the main church building at 10am in the chapel and 10am in the hall respectively.

  3. Independence from CCC

    In July 2012, SWEC became financially and constitutionally independent of its mother church, CCC.

  4. Became a Member of FIEC

    In 2015 SWEC became a member church of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), in order to extend our association with a growing and gospel-focussed church planting movement.

  5. Planted a New Congregation in Bankstown

    Also in 2015, SWEC planted a congregation in Bankstown in order to extend the mission field of our church further into the south-west of Sydney, particularly amongst other migrant groups in a very multicultural hub of our city.

  6. Officially Changed to SWEC

    In 2017 the name of the church officially changed to South-West Evangelical Church so that its mission and growth would be more inclusive of those who are not or do not identify themselves as ethnically Chinese.

  7. Bankstown Congregation Goes Independent

    SWEC's Bankstown congregation voted to go independent and become part of a new St Paul's Anglican Church congregation in order to make a successful partnership experiment permanent and so best serve the growing migrant community of Bankstown through their combined efforts and resources.