GOD might be everywhere but His son is at the pub.
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The divine side profile of Jesus has brought every man and his dog - and a television news crew - out to the Seanchai to get a glimpse of the blessed chipped paint adorning the front of the Liebig Street pub.
Since appearing in The Standard's Stand and Deliver page on Friday, word seems to have spread far and wide of Warrnambool's hallowed apparition, with a Channel 10 news crew stopping by the pub yesterday.
Happy to have a bit of a laugh, pub manager John Keohane was taking all the attention in his stride, if a little reluctant to get in front of the camera.
"I was definitely surprised," he said of hearing the news crew was on its way yesterday.
"When a man came in and told me about (the apparition of Jesus), I thought he'd had one too many Guinnesses.
"And now it's just building more and more."
Pointing the way to salvation (also known as the pub's front door) no one knows exactly when the "spiritual" etching appeared but steps have been taken by management to ensure the image is preserved, perhaps not for eternity but certainly for a while.
After his moment in the spotlight, retelling the story of how the holy likeness of paint scraping was brought to his attention by Tony van Rooy, co-owner of the pub Roger Fitzgerald said he thought the hype was "great fun".
It is a sentiment shared by Channel 10 reporter Rakhal Ebeli, who flew into Warrnambool to cover the story .
"Well, when word spread from Warrnambool to Melbourne an apparition had appeared at the Seanchai we just had to be the first to see it," he said.
The lights of the camera had barely left the pub when news that the story had been picked up online by a Melbourne newspaper, followed by a request for an interview on popular news/entertainment show the 7pm Project.
But for the Seanchai's number one Guinness drinker Bernie O'Keeffe, it's no secret the pub serves up a blessed brew.
"I think it's magic. Not as good as the sainthood Mary MacKillop though," he said
Mr O'Keeffe, who regularly travels from Terang to his favourite watering hole, has downed 2500 pints of Guinness since the Seanchai opened and says this is the first time he has ever seen Jesus at the pub.
