St. Matheos's Church
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St. Matheos's Church Ruined, dark. AndyMatthews (talk) 21:51, 5 October 2024 (UTC)
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| St Matheo's Church
Rhodenbank [85,3]
Basic Info:
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Description
St. Matheos's Church is a grand old church located in the suburb of Rhodenbank. The conception of the church was originally that of a young lady, Marianne Carey, who even from her childhood was obsessed with the idea to help the "poor old people" of Rhodenbank regain their faith in God. From the age of sixteen she cajoled and persuaded members of her family and their friends to support her own efforts in providing the finances for the building of the church. The story goes that in the years between 1929 and 1939, Major General Peter Carey and his wife Julia lived in Rhodenbank along with their only daughter, Marianne.
One day they all went for a walk from Standfast Plaza to Tikanoff Park, accompanied by some of their cousins from nearby Rolt Heights. Marianne, who was only 5 years old and not as strong as the rest, felt very weary and went to lie down on a park bench. From there, it is said, she looked out across Sawtell Road and felt great compassion for the poor people living among the crime-infested wastelands and junkyards that surrounded Billinghurst Place PD, as their nearest church was St. Dunstan's Church, a full block 3 block northeast of them. For a child this was an unfathomable distance. Back then she realized she had to do something for them... but what?
Years passed, but the need to help Rhodenbank's poor had stayed in her mind even from such a tender age. Then one Sunday, while watching everyone on their way to St. Dunstan's Church, she had a revelation. She ran screaming to her father, who was startled from reading his newspaper as he had thought Marianne had perhaps caught fire, but such was not the case. Marianne explained that she was so sorry for those "poor people" having so far to walk so far and that she wanted to build a church for them. General Carey eyed his daughter as if she had gone stark raving mad and laughed at her mockingly. Still undaunted, he eventually stopped laughing and he told her she should come ask again when she was older.
Her father probably forgot the whole ludicrous idea, but Marianne did not. At the age of 17 she again went to her father and again he mocked her. After another good laugh he finally gave his permission, with the provision that she could not to use her beautiful voice to make money for the crazy scheme. For you see Marianne had a lovely voice, one of the most beautiful in all the land, err, suburb.
Marianne agreed and soon began selling a series of $5 black and white photos of herself which she had taken at a local photographer's house and later sold for $100. Her father was first shocked at her business sense, but later realized it probably had more to do with the "revealing" outfits Marianne had worn in the photos, or perhaps a lack thereof. It was not until several hours later that police had finally put an end to General Carey's murderous revenge killing spree of young lads, but interest in Marianne's unlucky photos had understandably disappeared. Saddened by the sudden incarceration of her father, the loss of her profitable business, and still completely oblivious to the moral implications of raising money to build a church by dealing in softcore porn, Marianne went to see her "Aunt Mourant".
Aunt Mourant, or "Auntie" as the children affectionately called her due to her usually generous nature, did not take well to Marianne's crazy idea. Upon hearing the idea of building a church just 3 blocks from another one so poor people would not need to walk as far Auntie replied that she had never heard of anything so mad! What was Marianne's father thinking? To that Marianne explained she did not know, as he was still in jail and sentenced to death. Even so, her aunt was still not willing to give money to mad folk! Marianne continued to beg and plead for money, lamenting the 3 blocks the "wretchedly sick poor people" had to walk to reach the only other local church, but her aunt would not budge. Instead she sent her off to see her uncle Dean Carey. As Marianne sadly turned to leave her aunt, no doubt feeling a pang of guilt, added, "If he does give you anything, I'll double it - but he won't!". In actual fact Dean appeared thrilled with his niece's persistence, especially once she had explained what her aunt had promised. With a devilish smile he gave her $500. Shocked, Aunt Mourant grudgingly handed over $1,000 and cursed the name of Dean Carey.
Gradually over time Marianne continued to find ways to gather more and more money until eventually she had $14,000, which in those days was sufficient to build a good church with 300 seats. Other gifts provided to her were just as important - as her godmother, Mrs Thomas Carey offered to build the Vicarage, Reverend William Collings presented the church's bells, and Yohan Camper, one of the few young lads who had purchased one of Marianne's ill-fated photos and survived the wrath of her father's rampage, donated the site for the church. As such, in the year 1959, St. Matheos's Church was constructed. One year later Marianne's father was executed and his service held at that very church. Marianne couldn't be more pleased with herself and what she had accomplished. Everyone else thought her quiet mad.
Of course that was then and this is now. The church itself has not seen much use as a house of God since the "Malton Incident", when all the church's clergy either fled Malton or were devoured by hungry zombies. As such, the church has only really served as a safe house for those survivors passing through Rhodenbank.
Mandate
As a church, St. Matheos's is an ideal shelter for lower level survivors seeking to stay off the streets at night. An unspoken rule is that survivors assist with the barricades should they ever drop below Very Strongly, but over-barricading should only happen when protecting against zombie sieges. Afterwards barricades should be lowered when the danger has passed, so as to keep an open door policy.
Barricade Policy
In accordance with the Rhodenbank Civil Defense Corps barricade plan the location should be Extremely Heavily barricaded at all times. The true purpose of this building is to serve as a heavily fortified shelter for Malton's veteran survivors. It should be noted that the suburb's barricade policy does go against standard survivor policy for Malton church buildings which usually grants them an open-door policy in order to provide shleter for Malton's less experienced survivors, but desperate times often call for desperate measures.
Current Events
Nothing to report.
