SIX years after it burned down, a new St Barnabas Anglican Church on Broadway has risen from the ashes, ready to resume its friendly, billboard conversation with the hotel across the road.

''We're thrilled. We're excited. It's like we've been wandering in the wilderness and now, finally, we're going home,'' said Rowena Whittle, who joined hundreds of other worshippers at the first service in the new church yesterday.

''Our gift to the city'' ... the Reverend Mike Paget with relics of the previous St Barnabas Anglican Church, which burnt down in 2006. Credit:Dean Sewell

It was at 5.30am on May 10, 2006, that she and her flatmate woke to the news that Barneys, as it has been known affectionately since opening its doors in 1857, was on fire.

''We were in tears. It was terrible. Like losing a family home. Not because of the building but because of the memories it held,'' said Ms Whittle, who has been travelling regularly to St Barnabas from Cremorne for more than a decade.