“I prefer the heat,” Father Kirk, who grew up in Warialda Rail, said. “But they assure me the house will be warm enough.”

While few will feel sorry for him next time the mercury rises beyond 40°C, many left sweltering on the Plains will think of Father Kirk up in cooler climes and remember his eight years of service at the Moree All Saint’s Anglican Church.

Joining him will be wife Sharon and their youngest of five sons, Andrew, who starts grade seven next year. The other four have flown the coop. Eldest Jono is the Compassion marketing manager in Newcastle, Tim heads the TV department for Hillsong in Sydney. James has just been married, making it three from five. He studies agriculture, Daniel music.

“We’re thankful to God that each of our boys has grown up wanting to know and to love God, and then to be involved with him in some way through their work,” Fr Kirk said.

His own work with God has been to lead his congregation, which averages 150 of a Sunday, through what has been difficult years.

“When I first came to Moree during the drought in 2007 a significant amount of people were moving on, looking for work,” he said. “Not all of them returned when conditions improved. Now we’re starting to see that same effect again... Shops starting to close down, people losing their jobs, people moving on.”

Fr Kirk’s job has been to be there during those difficult times. He was lucky enough, he said, to have two congregation members who were councillors in Anglicare and could help provide that support.

“We’ve developed a welfare support system so that when people come looking for assistance, say looking for food, we try and have a food cupboard for them. Today, for example, I got an email from one of my parishioners saying that a person had had all their children’s Christmas presents stolen - could we help?”

As well as helping people stick out the tough times the church has helped new arrivals make a home. At playgroup church members noticed a lot of families, particularly from India and Sri Lanka, struggling to communicate with locals, so they started an English speaking class each Saturday.

“We saw how many people there were and the difficulty they were having with communication and we thought this was something we could do to help them and to engage them,” Fr Kirk said.

This was just one example of the exciting work the parish had undertaken, he said, also citing a recent visiting group created to serve the Fairview Nursing Home and working with the other churches of Moree to put on town carols.

Soon Fr Kirk will be following his calling in a new parish, but for now he is planning one last Christmas in Moree.

“Our Christmas service will be a bit different this year,” he said. “We’re having a pageant, and we’re encouraging people who come along, particularly kids, to dress up as an angel or a shepherd or a wise man and we’re going to encourage them to take part. So hopefully we’ll have more people up on stage than in the congregation.”

He will also give a service in the church branch in Terry Hie Hie this Sunday and Pallamallawa on Christmas Eve.

I’m not looking forward to leaving, I think that will be difficult. We love Moree, we think it’s a great place, great people, it’s going to be sad to leave,” he said.

“But I am looking forward to the opportunity to serve God in a new place and encourage his people.”