SAFETY concerns and a lack of funds will force the closure of Lalbert’s 100-year-old Uniting Church after it’s final service on July 6.
Built in 1914 and now called the St Andrews Anglican-Uniting Church, it has just seven regular members and OH&S regulations put down by the Uniting Church have made it impossible to stay open.
Guardian journalist NIKI BURNSIDE joined the congregation.
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ON A cold and gusty Sunday, the congregation and visiting church-goers stay cheerful and cosy inside the tall wooden building.
At one point, it creaks ominously in a strong wind, and church committee chairman Rob Allen laughs.
“It’s been doing that for 50 years,” he says.
Mr Allen has been coming to the church since his days in Sunday School, and his own children followed.
Now aged 78, he has fond memories of times when the tiny church was filled with as many as 50 people.
Today, that is the total population of the town.
His wife, Judy Allen, says it was with much deliberation and a “heavy heart” that they decided to close the church.
“It’s just too expensive to maintain,” she says.
“The requirements put down by the Uniting Church’s OH&S make it too expensive and too impractical to maintain for a small and ageing congregation.”
The church’s eldest member is 91, and its youngest 73.
“We’re too old to be climbing up ladders…”
“It’s a sad conclusion we’ve had to make, we’ve had many sleepless nights,” she says.
This isn’t the first major change for the congregation. It is actually a merging of three denominations.
The building has had many repairs over the years, all shouldered by its diminishing congregation.
Ongoing maintenance is a major reason for the closure.
“We’re too old to be climbing up ladders,” committee secretary Archie Alexander says.
They have replaced the cladding on the church and the wooden floors. When lights need replacing or cleaning needs to be done, they have to do it.
It has been a labour of love.
A clock on the wall of the church stands in memorial to Mr Alexander’s late daughter.
“She used to play the organ and sing up there,” he says.
With the closure, the building will be sold by the Uniting Church and its seven members will break up, attending the church of their choice in either Quambatook, Lake Boga, Swan Hill or another nearby town.
“We still have a great community centre, a very social footy and netball club and a wonderful little park…”
The church is going the way of a number of other businesses and organisations in Lalbert.
“The school closed, the shop closed, the pub blew over,” Ms Allen laughs.
“Cheap housing brings people to the town, but a lot of people want to keep to themselves and we have to respect that.
“But we still have a great community centre, a very social footy and netball club and a wonderful little park.”
The final service at Lalbert’s St Andrews Anglican-Uniting Church will be conducted on Sunday, July 6 at 11am.
A light lunch will follow at the Community Centre.
To RSVP, people are asked to contact Judy Allen on 5457 3273 or Margaret Ingram on 5457 3343.
