With 900 people looking on, Bishop Beal went on to mark the altar and walls with special oils as an act of reconsecrating a structure rebuilt just three years after fire burnt it to a shell.

It was a celebration like no other in the 144 years the Anglican parish of Albury had existed.

Parishioners had dreamt of it since the Saturday night conflagration of September 14, 1991.

The Anglican Primate, Archbishop Keith Rayner, preached a sermon quoting St Paul's observation that all buildings could be tested by fire, all the better if the foundations were sound.

He considered St Matthew's had passed with flying colours.

This weekend the present congregation led by Fr Peter MacLeod-Miller will mark the 25th anniversary, including a thanksgiving service at 9am on Sunday.

In 1991, Fr Stewart Eiseman told a stunned parish the morning after the fire: "We will bear this and rebuild St Matthew's."

For three years, a parish team of workers and fundraisers headed by Archdeacon John Davis watched the resurrection of their beloved church.

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Architect Ian O'Connor and builders A.B. & M.A. Chick Ltd were supported by many specialists and about 100 tradesmen creating something like no other in Australia.

Chick's site manager, John Miles, co-ordinated them all, from the tough slaters who stripped to shorts to lay the roof slates, to the stained glass artist Kevin Little, cabinet maker Gerry Curtis, chief roof carpenter David Mortimer, floor tiler John Gayfer, and many others.

Fire insurance paid for most of the $4 million needed.

Helping the Bishop on "opening night" were, among others, Archdeacon Davis; Libby Gilchrist, a deacon later to become the Wangaratta diocese's first female priest; and head server Robert Ballard, an Olympic runner and parish officer.

John Ross led the choir and David Luxton and David Drury played the Canadian pipe organ publicly for the first time.

Among the rites, hymns and praise, was a prayer that "Here may the poor find justice, the victims of oppression, true justice", a sentiment echoed in today's parish outreach to homeless people.

Among the rites, hymns and praise, was a prayer that "Here may the poor find justice, the victims of oppression, true justice", a sentiment echoed in today's parish outreach to homeless people.

Twenty-five years later, the church is a much-loved place of worship containing several artistic jewels, among them the East Window and a marble pulpit from Westminster Abbey.

Uniquely, it uses recycled oregon timber from a demolished Massey Ferguson factory at Sunshine, and great stone blocks salvaged from the Albury Jail.

St Matthew's is, of course, principally a house of God, but also hosts concerts and recitals.

Tim Fischer Memorial Concert at the church on Saturday at 2.30pm is part of the anniversary celebrations and features Thomas Strong, who sang at Mr Fischer's funeral.

A concert by the renowned guitarists the Grigoryan Brothers will be held at the church on Wednesday at 7.30pm.