Mooroolbark Baptist today enjoys a variety of instruments, including a newly acquired grand piano. It seems that an earlier piano in the church received quite a shake-up during the shift from Manchester Road to Hull Road in 1960...

Deciding that the easiest way to transport it was in a trailer flanked by several men, Rev. Malins was carefully negotiating the bend in the road at Five Ways (before any roundabout was built there) when the unrestrained piano began to slip to the back of the trailer…and, yes, smashed into several jagged pieces!  Undeterred, the resourceful minister hid the broken instrument in a garage until he was able to rebuild it…and no one was the wiser! It remained one of our better pianos and served us for many years.

In 1972 a male quartet was formed, the Maranatha Singers. Led by David Wide, the group originally consisted of David, Jim Neal, Laurie Milborne, Mike Downes and Fritz Groenhuizen, (yes, that’s five!) and was accompanied by Jan Milborne on the organ and Faith Sherman on the piano. Soon Gordon Summerson joined the “quartet”. The Singers quickly became well known and somewhat in demand, travelling to various places around Victoria to sing. They produced a recording in 1978 and another a few years later.

At the 50th Anniversary in 2002 the Maranatha Singers enjoyed a reunion and thrilled us all with their rendition of some old favorites, accompanied once again by Faith Sherman, a pianist for many years at MBC.

The LeMasurier Family Quartet also enjoyed travelling to different locations around the state. Mal, Doug, Jenny and Val LeMasurier formed an accapella group in the 70’s and produced a record in 1978.

MBC has also worked on several musicals and productions over the years.